ABSTRACT

This dynamic international collection provides a comprehensive overview of twin cities on administrative and international borders across the world. Drawing on contemporary and historical examples, it documents constant and changing features of twinned communities over time.

The chapters explore a variety of urban formations including independent cities located side-by-side; cities that have merged over decades or even centuries and those projected to merge; cities partitioned by treaties and cities duplicated in pursuit of better security, intensified trade or both between neighbouring countries. From Europe to Africa, North America to the Middle East, South America to Asia, this book focuses on relationships between cities, citizens and municipal/international borders. A cartographical contents and editorial commentary guide readers through diverse contributions. The authors ask how far cities are changing or remaining constant in the context of conurbanisation, Europeanisation and globalization. The book provides a glimpse into the variety of roles twin cities can play globally: from laboratories of integration and para-diplomatic actors to economic and cultural brokers.

This is a valuable, engaging resource for researchers in the fields of geography, urban studies, border studies, international relations and global development. It will be of great use to individuals involved in twin-city initiatives and general readers.

part I|16 pages

Intranational twin cities

chapter 1|16 pages

Minneapolis–St. Paul

The iconic twins?

chapter 2|14 pages

‘Too near neighbours to be good friends’ 1

Manchester and Salford

chapter 3|14 pages

NewcastleGateshead

A dynamic partnership

chapter 4|13 pages

The defence of old interests in a new city

Buda and Pest in Budapest in the late nineteenth century

chapter 5|13 pages

Urban Lagos 1927–67

A tale of two cities?

chapter 6|13 pages

Twin cities in African history

A comparative analysis of the 19th and 20th century capitals of Borno

chapter 7|15 pages

Indian twin cities

chapter 9|15 pages

Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Twins, rivals or potential megacity?

part II|16 pages

International twin cities

chapter 10|16 pages

Tabatinga, Leticia and Santa Rosa

Emergence, transformation and merging of paired and triple cities in the Amazon

chapter 12|15 pages

Border-city pairs in Europe and North America

Spatial dimensions of integration and separation

chapter 14|14 pages

Central European cross-border towns

An overview 1

chapter 15|15 pages

Comines and Wervik

On the three-way divide of two historically integral towns

chapter 16|14 pages

Border twin cities in the Baltic Area

Anomalies or nexuses of mutual benefit?

chapter 17|13 pages

City-twinning as local foreign policy

The case of Kirkenes–Nikel

chapter 18|13 pages

The Finnish–Russian border as a developmental resource

The case of Imatra and Svetogorsk

chapter 20|13 pages

Blagoveshchensk and Heihe

(Un)contested twin cities on the Sino-Russian border?  1

chapter 21|12 pages

Flows making places, borders making flows

The rise of Mae Sot–Myawaddy hub in the Thai–Burmese borderland

chapter 22|15 pages

So close, so far

National identity and political legitimacy in UAE–Oman border cities

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion