Port-City instawalk, an educator’s approach on port-city relationships

Being passionate about ports and port-cities doesn't always make you realize that what you see is not what others see. When you talk to people on the streets in Rotterdam for many people the port is as abstract as a bank. You know that what they do is important in daily life, but take it for granted. This was exactly the case when we started redesigning the curriculum of our Minor Port Management & Logistics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. How do we engage students with an economic, business or law background with the port-city? How can we make young academics make the connection between the past and the present in such a way that the younger generation gets engaged and finds a future in the port-city ecosystem? How can we make the connection between the past and the present so that the younger generation will create the future in the port spaces we live and work in? Instead of giving them just another paper assignment, we challenged students to explore the port-city territory itself and capture the stories, images and citizens’ testimonials on the waterfronts. The instructions were clear but left sufficient room for creativity: think of a specific theme such as the port expansion in the 19th century, iconic companies of yesterday, old to new port businesses, cranes, bridges, buildings which tell the story of maritime evolution and revolution and of course people’s traces through time. With that in mind we asked them to go out there and take as many pictures as they wanted, but always with a purpose and an explanation. To follow and document their endeavors, each team created an account on Instagram, thereby creating the first ever Port-City Instawalk, at least in Rotterdam. For each instawalk students the tasks was to design a promotional leaflet to invite other people like tourists to participate and experience Rotterdam on their own. What we got back at the end of the 8 weeks was as surprising as refreshing and…