According to the water. Commons-oriented perspectives on socio-spatial interactions towards adaptive governance in port city territories

The research delves into the evolution of the relationships between ports, cities and the wider territory in which they are located, and the issues related to the governance of areas of interaction between water and land, adopting the lens of common pool resources. It proposes an analysis of the interactions between the actors in institutional and non-institutional arenas, and their mutual influences on the transformation of port areas and the urban and territorial context. Through investigating the elements that influence the way authorities and organisations interact and make choices, thereby shaping outcomes and thus hindering or promoting institutional change, the aim is to reflect on relational dynamics from the perspective of adaptive governance. The work adopts a mixed methodological approach that integrates different disciplinary perspectives and an “embedded” research posture, using document analysis, historical cartography and ethnographic techniques. The scientific debate, through the conceptual lens provided by scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, emphasis issues related to the management of city-port conflicts linked to land use and the divergence of interests between these two dimensions, raising questions about the possibility of pursuing full sustainable development by balancing infrastructure development and local conservation, and about the friction between public support and citizens' consent for socio-spatial transformations determined by port activities. The research comprises seven chapters, divided into three parts. The first part sets out the research framework. Chapter 2 presents the theoretical underpinning based on Elinor Ostrom's Common Pool Resources (CPR) theory, explored in relation to the research topic through a two-phase process. The first relates the two main conceptualisations of the port-city interaction and the attributes of CPRs; the second uses the eight design principles for adaptive governance of CPRs to explore three conceptual lenses: actors' perspectives, co-evolution and tension between the processes of territorialisation and deterritorialisation, and knowledge and inclusion in multi-actor arenas. In Chapter 3, the analytical concepts are operationalised through the development of the research methodology. The analysis and development institutional (IAD) framework designed by Ostrom and the “extended” interpretation by Florian Clement (2010) are introduced. This second one — which considers as significant variables the economic-political contexts, discourse and power, and highlights the role of historical processes in influencing interaction arenas — further enriched by the incorporation of critical junctures and path dependences concepts derived from institutionalism (HI) and historical cartography, will be used for the case study investigation. In the second part, the two-level investigation starts from a socio-spatial analysis which explores the role of water in port-city evolution, as well as institutional trajectories of port and water-related authorities. Subsequently, the analysis of port-city transformation episodes is carried out by focusing on the interaction between port authority and civil society organisations within action arenas. In Chapter 4, the main case of Venice is deployed through the episodes of the Waterfront project and the Cruise Commissioner's works. In Chapter 5 the secondary cases of Amsterdam and Antwerp explore respectively the HavenStad project and the port expansion towards the Houtrakpolder, the Second Tidal Dock project and the Groot Park Saeftinghe initiative. In the third part, dedicated to discussion and conclusions, the theoretical reasoning is reconciled with the insights emerging from the case studies, by unfolding the three most relevant dimensions of CPRs in light of spatial challenges, long path power dynamics and stakeholder engagement within planning processes, and outlining future research directions.