The production of information space in the port of Piraeus: digital logistical media, power mutations and state transformations

Since 2010 the container terminal of Piraeus has—under the management of the Chinese operator COSCO Shipping—established itself as a hub in the global supply chains as well as a critical node in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The sharp increase in container handling volumes, and the terminal’s further interconnection with dozens more ports, have helped turn Piraeus into a global infrastructure. The article commences from an understanding of the port as an anomalous space where heterogeneous and overlapping powers, jurisdictions, actors and interests articulate and at times clash. It then turns to the port’s ongoing digitalisation and introduces the concept of ‘information space’ to explain the ways that information reflects and reproblematises the governance of Piraeus. More specifically, it focuses on the launch of a digital platform for the exchange of information between port users and the coordination of its operations. By interrogating the frictions and turbulent negotiations that followed the platform’s introduction, the paper explores the political, economic, and geographical transformations associated with the emergence of information as a key spatial agent.