Ports in Proximity provides an overview of key contemporary research in the field through a broad range of international case studies. The opportunities for cooperation between competing adjacent ports is examined while the avenues for further joint research are identified, setting an agenda for further study.

1: Introduction; I: Conceptualization of Ports in Proximity; 2: Revisiting Inter-Port Relationships under the New Economic Geography Research Framework; 3: Ports in Proximity, Proximity in Ports: Towards a Typology; 4: Port Regions and Globalization; 5: Path Dependency and Contingency in the Development of Multi-port Gateway Regions and Multi-port Hub Regions; II: The Governance of Ports in Proximity; 6: Proximity and Port Governance; 7: Regional Integration and Maritime Range; 8: Does the EU Port Policy Strategy Encompass 'Proximity'?; III: The North American Case: Corridors and Gateways; 9: Gateways are More than Ports: The Canadian Example of Cooperation among Stakeholders; 10: Port-hinterland Divergence along the North American Eastern Seaboard; 11: Competitiveness of Green Gateways: A Blueprint for Canada; IV: The European Case: Coordination in a Competitive Environment; 12: A Best Practice in Cross-border Port Cooperation: Copenhagen Malmö Port; 13: Rethinking Proximity: New Opportunities for Port Development. The Case of Dunkirk; 14: Italian Port Authorities Approaching the Post-reform: The Ligurian Case; 15: A Geographical Perspective on Port Performance in the United Kingdom, 1999-2007; 16: External Influences on the Humber Estuary Ports, the Largest Concentration of Port Activity in the UK; V: The Asian Case: Major Changes in Port Systems' Hierarchies; 17: Port Competition Paradigms and Japanese Port Clusters; 18: Port Challenge in Northeast Asia: Korea's Two-hub Port Strategy; 19: Hong Kong in Transition from a Hub Port City to a Global Supply Chain Management Centre

Theo Notteboom is President of ITMMA (Institute of Transport and Maritime Management Antwerp) and is also affiliated with the Department of Transport and Regional Economics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, César Ducruet, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris-I Sorbonne University, France and Peter de Langen Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands