Twinning Peaks—Potential and Limits of an Evolving Network in Shaping Europe as a Social Space

Abstract

In the context of the current crisis, many researchers as well as practitioners claim that the European integration process has to be complemented by a strong social dimension or what is sometimes called ‘horizontal Europeanization’. This article looks at town twinning in Europe, a specific instrument for fostering social exchange and partnerships across national borders. Different hypotheses concerning its development are tested on the basis of a cross-sectional full network analysis as well as longitudinal data from Germany and France from the early 1950s until today. The data suggest that important historical developments and turning points, such as the Cold War or the transformations in Eastern Europe after 1989, as well as structural context effects all have an important impact on twinning statistics in Europe. What is more, the European Union has (both directly and more indirectly) influenced twinning activities, most notably via its enlargement policy and the granting of financial support. Against the background of declining twinning figures in recent years, the article outlines a number of policy recommendations that seek to make top-down support for town twinning more effective. Finally, the article discusses the need for further research on the effects of town twinning on individuals' attitudes towards Europe and on the role of civil society in shaping town twinnings from the bottom up.

Keywords:

• Town twinnings
• European integration
• network analysis
• horizontal Europeanization

Notes

Data compiled by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), taken from project statistics available at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/citizenship/results_compendia/statistics_en.php.

Network theory discusses this under the label of ‘nodal carrying capacity’ (Monge et al. 2008).

However, it has not prevented the spread of twinning links worldwide and between different continents (Zelinsky, 1991, pp. 7–8). Results by Hoelscher and Anheier (2012, pp. 372 and 376) indicate that especially so-called ‘Global Cities’ have twinnings with far-away cities (e.g. the average distance to New York's sister cities is 8056 km, for Shanghai it is 8420 km, for Berlin 4693 km).

For more information see http://www.ccre.org/.

Additionally to the 27 EU member states we looked at data for the three EU candidate countries Iceland, Serbia, and Turkey, as well as for Norway, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

The data was compiled from the following sources: RGRE: http://www.rgre.de/partnerschaften0.html; AFCCRE: http://www.afccre.org/fr/nos-membres/annuaire-des-villes-jumelees.

Given that the French database only provides European partnerships, no ratio could be calculated.

Höpel (2011), for instance, analyses the influence of national (cultural) policy on the twinning between Lyon in France and Leipzig in Eastern Germany (pp. 290 ff.). He points out that partnerships within the ideological blocks in Europe mainly took the form of official town twinnings, while they were organized as ‘friendship agreements’ when relating municipalities across these blocks (p. 293).

Bilateral agreements in this direction are currently discussed: The German Minister of Education and Research, Annette Schavan, met her Spanish counterpart in July 2012 to discuss this issue (Preuss, 2012).