Manifestations of Contemporary Port City-scapes in Denmark: Anthropogenic Terrain and Future Trajectories

The extensive Danish coastline is dotted with small and medium-sized harbors. To various degrees, these harbors and the activities that shape and sustain them, are embedded in their localities - developed through close interrelationships with site-specific conditions of the sea and of the land, interwoven with local economies and communities – they are also material manifestations of links to elsewhere and global production and consumption flows. They are national and regional nodes in mobility networks of trade and flows, manifesting as moorings of building and infrastructure at local sites.
This paper empirically traces instances of site-specific interrelationships between harbors, towns, and landscapes. Four Danish harbors are the object of study, one an inland port by a fiord, the others located on the east and west coasts of the peninsula of Jutland. On the basis of this study, the paper develops thematic deliberations on the material manifestations of contemporary port-scapes and their mutual on-goings in two interlinked trajectories. First, in acknowledging and seeking to unfold the character of these harbors as anthropogenic terrains, the paper engages a conceptual discussion of the inscriptions of human-nature relationships in their material layout, space, and form. Second, the paper deliberates on future trajectories for the material agency of these layouts, spaces and forms in the ‘port-city relationships’, discussing controversies and mutualities between ports and towns.