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This session will draw on the case of Antwerp to examine the complexities of port cities in the context of globalization, focusing on its historical legacies and contemporary political dynamics. The session aims to set a critical tone by providing insight into the role of ports, ships, and shipping in the racial politics of containment and contamination during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., the relationship between cruise ships and refugee boats and the limitations of oceanic legal regimes). It will address questions such as how global trade and the circulation of people and goods have been influenced by complex political dynamics, highlighting the deeper connections between race, commerce, and port cities. The session will also provide a broader analysis of Antwerp’s role as a port city within the Belgian nation-state since the 19th century, examining how globalization trends have shaped the city’s port policies and how its status as a major economic hub influences both local governance and national politics. This session offers a compelling look at how globalization, local governance, and historical maritime ideologies intersect in shaping Antwerp’s present and future.
Invited speakers
Prof. Dr. Mikki Stelder (they/them) is an antidisciplinary researcher and writer whose work traverses oceans, anticolonial struggles, and queer transfeminist thought and praxis. Their work examines the relationship between Dutch maritime imagination and imperialist expansion, and how water holds potential for crafting radical and liberatory futures. It is situated at the intersection of critical ocean studies, Black and Indigenous studies, and anticolonial critique. They are an Assistant Professor of Global Arts and Politics at the University of Amsterdam.
Prof. Dr. Gilles Van Hamme is a professor of economic geography at Université Libre de Bruxelles. His work focuses on the economic and social dynamics of the Brussels area.
Moderator
Gert Van Hecken is associate professor at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB) and coordinator of the Debating Development series. His research focuses on the politics of knowledge in processes of social change, on critiques of neoliberal natures and ‘green economy’ proposals, on alternative (transformational) paradigms, social movements and processes related to degrowth, as well as on other processes of (re)imagining and (re)enacting alternative social-ecological futures. He teaches various courses on the political economy of social and ecological change, and is involved in several institutional partnerships with knowledge centers in Latin America.