Developing the city, developing the port: comparison of the governance in medium-size port-cities in Europe

Modifications undergone in global trade have forced ports to transform and move away from the city. This spatial distance contributes to a re-composition of territories and local governance. The analysis of medium-sized port cities is particularly illustrative in this respect. Their city-port relationship is especially robust and the mutual impacts of territorial and port dynamics emerge more clearly. Le Havre and Klaipeda (Lithuania) were therefore analysed. More than twenty interviews were carried out with some principal stake-holders, which facilitated to clarify the way in which the interplay between stakeholders’ structures port cities and influences the development of territories at several scales.