Legacy & transitions: Rotterdam’s port in a global sustainability context

As we continue to confront pressing social and environmental challenges, it’s important to recognise that we are not starting from a blank slate. Unpacking the historical trajectories that have shaped our current conditions is critical to envisioning and implementing pathways to a sustainable and just future.

In this event hosted by the Deep Transitions Lab (and supported by UGlobe and UU IOS platform), we surface the story of Rotterdam’s port – addressing both its history and the challenges it faces in transitioning to a sustainable port. We ask what this means for the Netherlands and, more broadly, how we can understand the impacts of local history on a global scale.

Bringing together a range of academics, we’ll hear a talk from Johan Schot, professor of Global History and Sustainability Transitions at the Utrecht University Centre for Global Challenge, then introduce a panel of interdisciplinary scholars, followed by a screening of Een Kano naar Zee directed by Andre van der Hout.

The Talk

Schot will give a presentation about how Rotterdam developed from a small regional port in 1850 to a leading port in the world. He will look at how this evolution is situated within the broader historical context of the Netherlands, and how it intersects with the rise of fossil fuels and globalisation. The talk will also address the challenges posed by this legacy for the transition toward a sustainable port—and, more broadly, a sustainable economy and society.

The Panel

Johan Schot, professor of Global History and Sustainability Transitions, an historian on the port of Rotterdam with a focus on global sustainability transitions.

Jana Cox, Assistant Professor in Environmental Hydrology (Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development), researching the (interacting) influence of human interventions and climate change on estuaries and river deltas with a specific focus on the Rhine-Meuse.

We are adding more panelists – new names coming soon...

The panel will consider:

• The global impact of local decisions and how they contribute to the challenges we face today.
• The challenges in transitioning to a sustainable port, and how these reflect broader challenges to achieving sustainability.
• How to navigate the legacies of past decisions and actions and the lasting impacts they have left.
• How to redirect past choices and decisions towards a more sustainable trajectory.
• Lessons from history that can inform both local and global efforts towards sustainability.

The Film

Een Kano naar Zee is a documentary that brings to life the history of Rotterdam Port. Filmmaker Andre van der Hout uses historical footage to explore the relationship between public and private interests of the twentieth century, analysing the voices of residents and workers in past transitions. Through a historical lens, the documentary includes an interdisciplinary approach from various scholars to discuss potential alternative futures for Rotterdam’s main port. As we now look toward a more sustainable future, it asks the audience to consider the contemporary implications of the port’s past and tries to reconcile with possible alternative futures for the delta.

Participating in the documentary as a historian of Rotterdam’s port, Johan Schot provided an historical perspective of the port and its connection to contemporary systemic challenges we face now. He commented:

“In 1961, Rotterdam became the biggest port in the world. The question is how and why this happened. This is a story about the consequences of globalisation, and about local choices and how to act on these. These choices have had consequences – social and ecological ones that have contributed to a poly-crisis of global heating, mass extinction, resource depletion and inequality. The port must address the question of how to become a sustainable port. This will involve hard and difficult choices. Business as usual will not do. This is not just a story about Rotterdam, it’s a story about the history of the Netherlands and beyond.”