Imagining Alternative Futures for Ports in Transition

Former ports of air and water in various parts of the world in search of their new identity experience uncertain states of a gradual or abrupt transition. Some are being imagined as metropolitan spaces or parks, while in times of economic recession, others are facing privatization and speculative development and from being public assets, they get absorbed by private enterprises at the detriment of the communities and cities they serve and belong. But both approaches are lacking in something. The ontological nature of these transient urban voids in the midst of the urban fabric remains problematic because of the arbitrariness to decision-making about their future, as long as citizens remain absent from it. By switching scales from local to global and by overcoming national frameworks, we attempt to understand horizontally such processes in development. We overcome the immediate questions that each of the case studies raises, in order to develop a sense of the big picture. We then go beyond the public vs private dilemma and examine the challenges of alternative forms of governance and policy development, through large-scale participatory planning and peer-to peer urbanism, as timely and fruitful for developing global futurity. Several workshops, research projects, presentations, and activist actions involve partners and collaborators in the process of forming a global transnational research network across a number of cities in Europe and Latin America. The representatives of these workshops and research initiatives are inspired by the richness of P2P production between individuals, collectivities, movements and institutions, and attempt a transfer of that experience into the realm of physical space and the global nomos, specifically using the concepts of 'metropolitan’ and ‘cosmopolitan commons'. Members of the network in Quito with livestreaming connection with researchers from other cities including Berlin, Hamburg, Gdansk, La Plata and Athens address their research case studies.