Pleasure Reconsidered and Relocated: Modern Urban Visions in the Wake of Rotterdam’s Discontinued Amusement Areas

V. Baptist, Paul Van de Laar

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeChapterScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Places of constant hustle and bustle, where people and goods arrive and depart, where land and water meet: port cities have traditionally, and quite easily, given rise to slogans, metaphors, and even myths ascribed to their particular maritime urban profile. Such conceptions are not merely superficial one-liners. As pointed out in the introduction to this volume, they also function as invitations to explore micro-geographies, often overlooked associations and traces in the contemporary environment (Harteveld, 2021), and to further theorize the distinct character of port cities (Hein, Luning, & Van de Laar, 2021). However, as with more general urban discourses, trying to pinpoint ‘the port city’ leads to the realization that any notion of ‘port cityness’ inevitably brings together certain meanings and dimensions that potentially compete with and contradict each other (Vigar, Graham, & Healey, 2005). In the context of port cities, the well-known ‘hustle and bustle’ narrative evokes imagery with an economic dimension of the mass cargo serving as indicator of global port competition; a social dimension, of the constant in- and outflux of varied groups of people; and a cultural dimension, of the places and practices port city residents and visitors have engaged in. This chapter focuses on the latter aspect, thereby examining the cultural dimension of port cities through the history of their often-stereotyped pleasures (Baptist, 2020), and how over time these have been reconsidered and relocated through different urban planning initiatives. [...]
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHustle and Bustle
Subtitle of host publicationThe Vibrant Cultures of Port Cities
EditorsCarola Hein, Robert Bartłomiejski, Maciej Kowalewski
Place of PublicationLeiden
PublisherBrill
Chapter5
Pages94-119
Number of pages26
ISBN (Electronic)978-90-04-71117-4
ISBN (Print)978-90-04-71116-7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

Publication series

NameInternational Studies in Maritime Sociology
PublisherBrill
Volume3
ISSN (Print)2667-0798

Bibliographical note

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