Fluid Entanglements: Narratives of Waterfronts in the City
Abstract
This introduction to the thematic issue connects the contributors’ arguments to the broader context of existing literature and to current epistemological predicaments. The notion of waterfront has endured for over 100 years within planning documents and policy discourses, shaping urban strategies and citizens’ preferences across the world. This thematic issue examines the current state of narratives and discourses on waterfronts. Waterfronts are investigated to consider the conceptual work evoked to frame urban problems and build narratives that shape planning and policy action. It is asserted that narratives about waterfronts differ: while some define goals for city development relying on specific strands of expert knowledge to justify often questionable decisions, others capture the experiences and representations of waterfronts, including their subjective and autobiographical dimensions.
References
- Airas, A., Hall, P. V., & Stern, P. (2015). Asserting historical “distinctiveness” in industrial waterfront transformation. Cities, 44, 86–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.02.002
- Anzilotti, E. (2016, October 18). A vision for a Chicago unified by rivers. Bloomberg US Edition. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-18/how-chicago-srivers-will-unite-the-city
- Avni, N., & Teschner, N. (2019). Urban waterfronts: Contemporary streams of planning conflicts. Journal of Planning Literature, 34(4), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885412219850891
- Bakker, K. (2003). An uncooperative commodity: Privatizing water in England and Wales. Oxford University Press.
- Boland, P., Bronte, J., & Muir, J. (2017). On the waterfront: Neoliberal urbanism and the politics of public benefit. Cities, 61, 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.08.012
- Cybriwsky, R. A. (2016). Whose city? Kyiv and its river after socialism. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 98(4), 367–379. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/geob.12110
- Dovey, K. (2005). Fluid city: Transforming Melbourne’s urban waterfront. Routledge.
- Gomes, P. (2019). The birth of public space privatization: How entrepreneurialism, convivial urbanism and stakeholder interactions made the Martim Moniz square, in Lisbon, “privatization-ready”. European Urban and Regional Studies, 27(1), 86–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969776418823052
- Hanssen, J. K. (2019). The researcher-initiated autobiography’s work as an actant in producing knowledge about the social. Qualitative Research, 19(3), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794118760748
- Hartig, J. H. (2019). Waterfront porch: Reclaiming Detroit’s industrial waterfront as a gathering place for all. Greenstone Books.
- Hirt, S. (2012). Iron curtains: Gates, suburbs, and privatization of space in the post-socialist city. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Kaya, E. (2020). Transformation of Sydney’s industrial historic waterfront: The production of tourism for consumption. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9668-7
- Land, I. (2007). Tidal waves: The new coastal history. Journal of Social History, 40(3), 731–43. https://doi.org/10.1353/jsh.2007.0051
- Macdonald, E. (2017). Urban waterfront promenades. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315740836
- Nechepurenko, I. (2019, May 17). Putin intervenes to halt cathedral project after popular protests. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/world/europe/russia-cathedral-yekaterinburg-protests.html
- Porfyriou, H., & Sepe, M. (Eds.). (2016). Waterfronts revisited: European ports in a historic and global perspective. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315637815
- Sadler-Smith, E., & Akstinaite, V. (2021). Human hubris, anthropogenic climate change, and an environmental ethic of humility. Organization & Environment. https://doi.org/10.1177/10860266211039000
- Smith, D. (2008). Sur les quais des brumes: Mist, mystification and demystification in the French reception of Elia Kazan’s on the Waterfront. French Cultural Studies, 19(1), 85–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077727X07085719
