This blog was written as part of a two-part reflection on the past six years of the PortCityFutures blog series. In the following conversation moderated by our interns Koen Feenstra and Floris Catijn, members of the editorial team, Yi Kwan Chan, Eliane Schmid, Wenjun Feng, and Nathan Döding, reflected on their experiences managing the PCF blog, discussing its development, challenges, highlights, and their vision for the blog’s future.
[Koen] How would you look back on your time at the blog team, and what is a highlight of your time at PCF?
[Yi Kwan] When we as a team started around September 2024, it was an interesting time because when we took over from Vincent, the coordination team was doing a revamp of the website. This created a good opportunity for the blog team to reorganize and improve the navigation system a little better on the website and, of course, introduce the Thematic Research Groups categories. At the time, I felt that I was able to bring in my experience of working in an archive and apply my understanding of how an organizational structure and system could be designed to the blog. [Eliane] We called it the Yi Kwan Method. That was great fun. I think we learned a lot because this was the first time we were editors and were in charge of something like this. We were also very fortunate, because we had a perfect basis to start from. Most of the heavy lifting had already been done, which allowed us to focus on improving and adapting the blog. Because the blog had grown so much since its beginnings, we needed to have a different way of organizing the content. For example, we were able to make it feel more like a journal, with each blog assigned its own number so that the posts could be more easily traced.
[Wenjun] My main contribution was to switch the blog map. When I joined PortCityFutures, the map was handled by another PhD, Thomas, and it was still an ongoing project. What I did was transfer it to Google Maps, which made it much more accessible. It is free to use, readily available, and very flexible to adapt and update.
[Koen] What challenges did the team face when it started?
[Wenjun] When we first started, the format of the blog was still quite, let’s say, free. We tried to standardize it by updating the blog post guide. [Eliane] Most of the things that we did were in favor of creating a more coherent identity, so that the blogs would be more easily comparable and easier to organize. We wrote the template and guidelines. I think one of the challenges was getting authors to properly look at and fill out the template — instead of sending us just anything — and to really use what we gave them as a tool to help them. [Yi Kwan] I think the system is still far from perfect, but we do try to do two dimensions of content categorization through thematic theme groups and also the tags on the website.
[Wenjun] Early on, we received one contribution, which was called a shadow play, a dynamic GIF, with very little text. These kinds of submissions do not come very often, although I hope they will more in the future. I think they are very interesting, but they also create certain challenges for us in terms of editing.
[Floris] A nice bridge to our next question: are there any particular blog posts that stayed with you, and why?
[Yi Kwan] The shadow play was, in general, a more creative and less usual format for us to handle. I think the editors did a great job with it. I also thought of another blog post I worked on with one of the interns from last year, about Aktau, a port city in Kazakhstan. That post stood out to me, not only because it was one of the first blog posts on Central Asia, but also because the topic itself is very interesting. Kazakhstan is a landlocked country without direct access to the oceans. Yet it is connected to the Caspian Sea, so there is still a port-city angle to explore, especially in how geopolitics shapes this city. For me, it is a blog post that really showcases the depth and breadth that the water and port-city perspective reaches academically, but also in life.
[Eliane] On a personal level, simply the first blog post I wrote, because it was fun to be on the other side. It made me understand the challenges authors were facing better. Writing a blog post isn’t that easy because it’s so short. It looks easy since the language is lighter, but it’s actually difficult to strike the right tone and find the right length. I think length is the biggest challenge for everyone contributing to the blog. It’s not a journal article, so we need to keep it short and engaging. But at the same time, we’re fact-checking everything, so it still has to be accurate and well-grounded. The challenge is finding the right balance between those things.
[Wenjun] I still remember the first blog I reviewed.I wasn’t a member of the blog team yet, but Vincent asked me to review Martin Jan Månsson’s Local Identity and Global Relevance, for which Martin had made a very beautiful and detailed map about global trade flows in the 18th and 19th centuries. I still remember how well done that was, and certainlyin terms of graphic design. Another post I remember is about the port city relationship and the history of port city dynamics. The author, Belén Landaluce Conesa, was part of a port authority and could give a lot of information on how a container port actually operates, which was very different from what I read in academic papers.
[Nathan] Yi Kwan's recent blog post in advance of her book My Port City Rotterdam was the affirmation I needed. Being a child of port/municipality workers, I was raised with an appreciation of the port. How could something so massive be so quiet? I thought for a long time that academic discourse was only about changing the port city, a stark opposite of my loving view of the port. Yi Kwan acknowledged my position, as well as that of many other’s. It simply is a complex web of not only infrastructures, but also cultures and beliefs.
[Koen] How would you describe the atmosphere within the team and PCF?
[Nathan] Simply great. The blog team is especially a dedicated and loving group of people who not only support each other professionally but also share a genuine interest in each other's findings and growth. I have been lucky to find a team that is so driven, both professionally and personally.
[Yi Kwan] It has been really positive for me too. For the past two years, we have managed to really stay close as a team in terms of asking each other's opinions on how to approach or present something, as well as on how to communicate with authors. Of course, geographically, we’re not close at all. But within the team, I think there’s a strong culture of talking things through, everyone chipping in, and trusting each other to do a good job. I think that’s something that is really valuable.
[Eliane] I think we’re very good at recognising each other’s strengths, and oddly enough, we are really well balanced. We are having a lot of fun as well, which is important because, as Yi Kwan said, we’re doing this on the side. Editing the blog is something we are doing additionally because we like to do it, and it's a valuable experience. And what I think really helps are the bi-weekly blog meetings that we have. They provide a nice rhythm that we have kept up really well. It’s also a good moment to quickly exchange ideas. I think we’re quite efficient, but there’s also some time for chit-chat, so it feels like a nice balance. [Yi Kwan] I also appreciate the few times when we get to actually meet in person and have a nice chat about not only blog posts, but also other things.
[Floris] How would you reflect on our findings that the blog is becoming more interdisciplinary?
[Eliane] I think interdisciplinarity is a general strength of PortCityFutures. From the beginning, I was fascinated by how many different disciplines come together around this unique topic. I joined just as I started my PhD, so I was still very new to the study of port cities. It was really interesting to hear the perspectives of anthropologists, architects, port authorities, and others, all of whom look at the same space from very different angles. That diversity makes the conversation very rich. Because it’s such a specific topic, I think the collaboration works particularly well. Of course, there are always small disciplinary gaps or little squabbles, but I think that also makes it more interesting. To me, that’s a unique strength of PortCityFutures in general, and it’s something we also try to reflect in the blog.
[Yi Kwan] I completely agree. It is almost natural and necessary because the topics, problems and phenomena that a lot of us are studying are interdisciplinary in and of themselves. It would be strange to actually look at it from a mono-disciplinary angle. It also pushes us, as blog editors and researchers, to engage in interdisciplinary research and discussions, rather than staying narrowly focused on our own specific interests.
[Nathan] Ports in general, being organisations with global acknowledgement, have always had a clear vision of themselves, but PCF has managed to illuminate the more peripheral aspects of a port. Finally, different voices and perspectives come forward, showing it is not just a separate entity doing its thing, but shaping everything around it. [Koen] I think those moments of friction between the different disciplines are actually very valuable, because they can lead to new insights through discussion. [Eliane] It also helps us be more flexible in our thinking. The big problems that are discussed within the blog are problems you cannot solve simply as an engineer or as a historian, pointing out what went wrong. You need to have multiple conversations because it is a very complex system that relies on different opinions.
[Koen] How do you look at the PortCityFutures blog as a platform for young academics to find their voice and to discover their academic interests?
[Eliane] Speaking from my own perspective, it’s a good place to begin. If you don’t know much about ports or port cities, it’s an accessible way to dive in because there are many different sources of information, written in a friendly tone and presented in different formats. Because the pieces are manageable in length, it’s a good place to start publishing. Your first publication can feel intimidating, but this is a safe space: there are always at least two editors who double-check everything and guide you as an author. At the same time, we publish texts from all levels, so it’s not just a platform for people trying things out. It is a proper platform. There is also a connection between the blog and the Blue Papers. Some of the blogs have been developed into journal papers. There is opportunity to publish not just on the blog, but to work out texts to longer formats.
[Yi Kwan] You can think of the blog as a ping-pong table that allows for the ping-ponging of ideas, publications and discussions. When I first started at PortCityFutures, the blog was also very important for me to understand what, who and where this research was happening. It is a very accessible way to understand that compared to, let's say, reading a chapter or journal articles.
[Koen] Our research, based on interviews with several top contributors, found that the blog could benefit from creating more space for debate. We have discussed this before in terms of the technical possibilities, but we would like to hear your vision on debate itself: what could it contribute to the blog?
[Nathan] A blog, being a sort of digital forum for new ideas, is perhaps nothing without debate. What good is an answer without a formula? When spitting out mere answers, we gain no credible knowledge. Of course, the blog is a small part of the entire umbrella of PCF, but I see an opportunity in taking it as fertile ground to spark discussions during PCF Monthly Meetings.
[Yi Kwan] I think interaction, replying to others, and expressing opinions are all valuable. At the same time, there are technical limitations, and we also have to consider the bigger picture: moderation, bots, scammers, and the general realities of the internet. I think that makes it more difficult. We can think, however, about other forms that still allow debate to happen. For example, could people respond through a series of blog posts? Or could interaction happen privately instead of publicly?
[Wenjun] This is probably also just a result of the blog being multidisciplinary. Most contributors come from their own field, and they do not necessarily talk to each other. Many of them just came across PortCityFutures through different opportunities. Some of them came from the MOOCs online public course, while others were introduced to us during the monthly PCF talks. Then there are contributions from within our own research groups and from outside PortCityFutures as well.
[Eliane] I'll take up the ping-pong analogy. So if the blog is the table, we provide the platform so that people can build on each other's work. It's very important that these posts are being discussed. But I think that, because many authors are connected through the wider network, whether via the PCF talks, Blue Papers, or in-person events, there are already spaces where people can exchange ideas. So I think the aspect of debate is already there and nicely embedded within the wider network of PortCityFutures.
[Koen] The thematic groups were introduced around 2024, but articles from 2021 were later assigned to the groups they fit best in. Looking at the data, almost all articles from that year ended up under the theme of Human-Centered Port City Transition. How does that impact the categorization and ordering?
[Yi Kwan] There are limitations to applying these kinds of categories retrospectively. What we are seeing now is that when a thematic label becomes too broad, it can turn into a miscellaneous category because almost everything fits within it. And I think that is what makes it challenging. That does not mean there are no blog posts about Human-Centered Port City Transition, but rather that many posts are about more than just that. That is why we introduced a system of tags, which allows topics to emerge more organically and from the bottom up.
[Eliane] That's the general problem with categorization, right? It´s kind of helpful for an overview, but it's also automatically excluding or limiting in a way. That also applies to the new blogs. I'm not sure the authors actually send us things with a specific group in mind. It is always just our impression of where it fits best. To balance it out a little bit, we still kept that rolling overview at the bottom, where all blog posts are listed chronologically.
[Nathan] What Eliane says is true; we do not ask for authors to define a thematic research group themselves, mainly because they’re not necessarily personally affiliated with one. I do think, however, that the research groups have proven to be absolutely vital for the framework of knowledge of PCF in general. It makes sense to organise the PCF Blog in a similar fashion. To me, the interesting thing is where research groups might overlap, and perhaps more importantly, what are the stark opposites between groups?
This blog post wraps up the two-part reflection series on ‘Six years of the PortCityFutures blog’. Click here to read Part 1.
Acknowledgement
This blog post has been written in the context of discussions in the LDE PortCityFutures research community. It reflects the evolving thoughts of the authors and expresses the discussions between researchers on the socio-economic, spatial and cultural questions surrounding port city relationships. This blog was edited by the PortCityFutures editorial team: Nathan Döding and Yi Kwan Chan.