Category Archives: transport

How the (closure of the) Suez Canal changed the world

Posted on 31 August 2014 by Laleh Khalili

The segment of my January/February container-ship journey I am most anticipating is passing through the Suez Canal.  Here is what Horatio Clare writes about his passage through Suez: Unfinished wars lie under all our horizons.  The chart on which Chris plotted our … Continue reading →

Posted in infrastructure, Middle East, militaries, political economy, ports, shipping conditions, ships, transport, war | 4 Comments

The Uses of Shipping Containers

Posted on 24 August 2014 by Laleh Khalili

There is a deep fascination with shipping containers… The best reading on all of this is of course the classic The Box  by Marc Levinson – but recently there are a lot more links.  Here are a few more: This piece … Continue reading →

Posted in infrastructure, political economy, shipping conditions, transport | 1 Comment

Rime of mariners ancient or modern

Posted on 26 July 2014 by Laleh Khalili

I think I read the Rime of the Ancient Mariner some years ago when i was young, but like a great many great works of literature, it is a poem that is wasted on the youth.  Its sense of regret, loss, … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, infrastructure, labour, logistics, political economy, readings, seafaring, shipping conditions, transport | Leave a comment

The Cargo Cults of USA – Part II

Posted on 16 July 2014 by Laleh Khalili

In an extraordinary essay titled “The Smell of Infrastructure,” Bruce Robbins argues that the scaffolding of our lives, the infrastructure that carries shit and coal and lobsters and water and electricity is often made invisible. He has a rousing call … Continue reading →

Posted in bureacuracy, capital accumulation, infrastructure, labour, logistics, political economy, readings, transport | Leave a comment

The Cargo Cults of USA – Part I

Posted on 13 July 2014 by Laleh Khalili

John McPhee has taught David Remnick and Richard Stengel and a few other famous journalists to write, and apparently he is a fixture of The New Yorker, but his work is so much more interesting that those of his proteges, and … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, infrastructure, labour, logistics, political economy, readings, shipping conditions, ships, transport | Leave a comment

The Port of Beirut

Posted on 20 June 2014 by Laleh Khalili

This gallery contains 23 photos.

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Transport capital

Posted on 30 May 2014 by Laleh Khalili

There is a lot to chew on here, but this sentence really struck me: “As for finance, there’s been no tendency for its executives’ pay to outpace that of nonfinancial executives. On the contrary: even during the bubble years of the 2000s, … Continue reading →

Posted in capital accumulation, finance and insurance, logistics, political economy, transport | Leave a comment

The ship

Posted on 28 May 2014 by Laleh Khalili

Come end of January 2015, I will be on this ship:

Posted in ships, the sea, transport | Leave a comment

LA/LB

Posted on 20 April 2014 by Laleh Khalili

There is an amazing bit in Alan Sekula‘s magisterial Forgotten Space where Angelenos of Latino origin sit at an outdoor space drinking beers and watching enormous container ships glide towards the unloading docks and cranes.  Ever since watching that, I really wanted … Continue reading →

Posted in Allan Sekula, infrastructure, logistics, militaries, political economy, ports, transport | Leave a comment

Piracy and Counter-piracy

Posted on 18 April 2014 by Laleh Khalili

There is a kind of romance around piracy.  It is the romance of anti-authority figures and of a life lived not just in the margins but outside the boundaries.   Just think about the masses of novels and films about piracy … Continue reading →

Posted in finance and insurance, logistics, piracy, political economy, ports, readings, shipping conditions, ships, transport | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment