RT Journal Article
T1 Ports in state socialism, or why the Cold War matters to maritime history
A1 Le Normand, Brigitte
A1 Lemmen, Sarah
AB As central transport hubs of commodities, people and information, ports play a specific and important role in modern societies. This is valid even more so in socialist states. As we argue in this introduction, and subsequently throughout this Forum, socialist ports were in many ways places of exception: in a political system that preferred closed borders, ports symbolized the ‘gates to the world’; in an economic system that was thoroughly planned, ports became the main contact point for global trade outside of a planned economy. Therefore, while socialist ports differed from other socialist entities, they also differed from non-socialist ports, especially regarding the influence of government control and decision-making through state-owned companies or the ‘primacy of politics’ over economic argument. This specificity of socialist ports during the Cold War is analysed from three perspectives in the articles collected in this Forum: first, on the local or micro level, attention is afforded to agents such as sailors or port workers navigating the particular conditions of the ports; second, the top-down approaches of local or national management of the ports are discussed; third, ports are appraised as part of larger networks in their international context.
PB Sage Journals
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116407
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/116407
LA eng
NO Le Normand, Brigitte & Lemmen, Sarah (2021). Ports in state socialism, or why the Cold War matters to maritime history. International Journal of Maritime History, 33(1), 118-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/0843871421991176
NO Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
NO University of Kiel
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025