Reexploring Transport Geography and Networks: A Case Study of Container Shipments to the West Coast of the United States

Abstract

IntroductionThere has been a tremendous outpouring of geographic research in recent years that attempts to explain economic relations across space in terms of networks (Alderson

River of Traffic: The Spatial Fragmentation of US Ports

“…On the East Coast, it is the Port of New York and New Jersey (MCCALLA, 1999). On the West Coast, it is the adjacent ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles (FOWLER, 2006). And on the Gulf Coast it is Houston.…”

Flows and Pauses in the Urban Logistics Landscape: The Municipal Regulation of Shipping Container Mobilities

“…Due to significant economies of scale, containers themselves are growing rapidly in number, leading to problems for the private and public sectors alike (Fowler 2006). Because of the significant worldwide imbalance in terms of where goods are produced and consumed, shipping companies must move containers to where they ' (2004, p. 484) due to the lack of interior rail and road infrastructure (although this is changing rapidly), while the limits in Europe are more in terms of restrictions on inland waterway usage.…”

Bridging the Qualitative–Quantitative Divide in Transport Geography∗

“…In an increasingly globalized environment, successful firms across the manufacturing and service sectors have been benefiting from innovations in e-commerce, intermodal transportation, and supply chain management as part of a growing appreciation of the important role played by the logistics and distribution industry in economic competitive advantage (Plummer 1996;Leslie and Reimer 1999;Hughes 2001;A. Smith et al 2002;Capineri and Leinbach 2003;Coe et al 2004;Hesse and Rodrigue 2004;Wrigley, Coe, and Currah 2005;Bowen 2006;Fowler 2006;Rodrigue 2006;Dicken 2007). Postfordist production approaches, such as flexible specialization, justin-time inventory, and increased outsourcing and offshoring, require much more sophisticated logistics, supply chain management, and distribution systems to function properly (Aoyama, Ratick, and Schwarz 2006).…”

“…Critical and quantitative approaches need not be mutually exclusive. Examples from transport geography that point the way include work by Kwan (1999bKwan ( , 2000, Kwan and Weber (2003), Schwanen (2003), Schwanen, Dijst, and Dieleman (2002), Sultana (2005), Bowen (2002), Hall (2004), andFowler (2006) that blend together critical and quantitative approaches. As Sheppard (2001), Plummer and Sheppard (2001), Kwan (2004), Poon (2005), and others have suggested, an as yet unfulfilled role exists for the use of quantitative methods within the framework of critical theory in geography.…”