Port infrastructure and technological revolutions: spatial patterns and the international division of labour in Buenos Aires

Abstract

Techno-economic paradigms (TEPs) are based on cross-cutting technologies that impact productivity and are implemented through incremental innovations in physical infrastructures, generating a predominant spatial design. The stratification of these infrastructures, which limits development, has relevant and varied impacts in peripheral and colonial territories. The study aims to characterise how infrastructures generated by different TEPs reflect the relationship between urbanisation, technological innovation and the international division of labour. Employing reflexive mapping, the research undertakes a multi-scalar analysis of the port infrastructures of Buenos Aires, using a heuristic approach informed by the territories, places, scales and networks (TPSN) analytical framework. The analysis focuses on spatial structuring patterns and scalar representations of TEPs, with particular emphasis on the stratifications established during the steam and steel ages (1829–1907).