This summer a new research project will start at the faculty of History and Arts, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and entitled:

Outport and Hinterland: Rotterdam Business and the Ruhr Industry, 1870-2000

This research project aims to explore the development of the economic links between Rotterdam, Rotterdam business and the Rhine mouth ports on the one hand, and the Ruhr district and Ruhr industry on the other in the course of the 1870-2000 period. The central research questions are: how and why economic interdependencies between Rotterdam and its hinterland evolved over these 130 years, in which way the main actors shaped the cross-border region, and what role networks or clusters played in this process. For the following three subprojects the faculty is searching for three PhD-Students:
a Coal, Iron Ore and Steel
Rotterdam Business and the German ‘Montan’ Industry, 1870-1940
b Opting for Oil.
Rotterdam’s Oil Harbour and the Move from Coal to Petrochemical Feedstock of the Rhine Industry, 1945-1970
c The Box and Rotterdam’s New Hinterland.
The Rise of Container Transport and Globalisation,1970-2000

The project focuses on two main actors in the Lower Rhine economy, i.e. firms and governments. The guiding theory is based on ideas of agglomeration or clustering as used in economic geography.

The project will start in July, 2009 and will be concluded in the summer of 2013.