ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests that, in appropriate political and especially administrative circumstances, twin cities can emerge after conurbanisation: witness Ikeja steadily emerging from metropolitan Lagos to become the Lagos-State capital in 1976, while Lagos was the federal capital between 1914 and 1991. It highlights three levels of relational intensity: between his three sets of Baltic twins: Narva–Ivangorod, Valga–Valka and Haparanda–Tornio. The book explores the theme for Imatra–Svetogorsk. It shows business-people in Minneapolis–St. Paul perceiving their interests purely in city-oriented terms, rendering them defensive of city interests, thereby enhancing inter-city conflict, but, in decades, becoming powerful forces behind twin-city and indeed regional orientations. The book brings together scholars from across the world, drawn from urban geography, economics, sociology, history and politics, including many leading figures in the twin-city field.
