Town twinning
This article is about partnerships between towns distant from each other; see Twin cities for the unrelated concept of physically neighbouring cities. See also Twin Town for the 1997 movie. Twin Cities is also an American colloquialism for the Minneapolis-St. Paul (Twin Cities) Metropolitan Area.Town twinning or
sister cities is a concept where
towns or
cities from geographically and politically distinct areas are paired, with the goal of fostering human contact and cultural links. In Europe, such pairs of towns are known as
twin towns,
friendship towns or, in German,
partner towns (
Partnerstädte); in
North America and
Australasia, the term
sister cities is used for the same concept; and
brother cities (
города-побратимы) is the term in the former Soviet bloc. Twin towns often (though by no means always) have similar demographic and other characteristics. Sometimes, even larger areas enter into "twinning" agreements, such as that between the
provinces of
Hainan in
China and
Jeju in
South Korea.
The concept can be likened to a scaled up version of a "
pen pal" scheme, where the "pals" are whole towns or cities. In practice, the twinning arrangements often lead to
student exchange programs, as well as economic and cultural collaborations.
The practice of town twinning was developed in
Europe after the
Second World War as a way to bring European people into a closer understanding of each other and to promote cross-border projects of mutual benefit. An early example of town twinning dates back to 1947 when Bristol Council sent five 'leading citizens' on a goodwill mission to Hanover. While still more popular as a concept in Europe than elsewhere, the idea has now spread to other continents, leading to some very interesting pairings.
Within Europe, town twinning is now supported by the
European Union. The support scheme was established in
1989. In
2003 an annual budget of about 12 million
euros was allocated to about 1,300 projects.
E.U. sister cities are a separate affiliation from the international sister cities associations.
The city of
Vancouver,
British Columbia,
Canada was one of the first cities ever to enter into an international twinning arrangement when, in 1944, it twinned with the city of
Odessa, which at the time was part of the
Soviet Union. This was based on aiding the allied port city during
World War II.
The American "Sister Cities" program was begun in
1956 by
President Dwight Eisenhower. It was originally administered as part of the
National League of Cities, but since
1967 has been a separate organization,
Sister Cities International (SCI), which is a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network creating and strengthening partnerships between U.S. and international communities in an effort to increase global cooperation at the municipal level, to promote cultural understanding and to stimulate private business and economic development. SCI leads the movement for local community development and volunteer action by motivating and empowering private citizens, municipal officials and business leaders to conduct long-term programs of mutual benefit.
Sometimes, people will use the phrase "sister cities" to mean cities that are neither very close together, nor from two different cultures and officially twinned, but rather two cities with similar cultures and/or historical background , as with
Galveston, Texas and
New Orleans, Louisiana, two cities that were historically major Southern ports on the
Gulf coast Another example is
Charleston, South Carolina and
Boston, Massachusetts (see the Charleston article for a description of their colonial-era relationship). "Twin Towns" is also used as a colloquialism for the
Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, specifically referring to the central
twin cities of
Minneapolis and
Saint Paul.
*
List of twin towns and sister cities - a substantial, though incomplete, list of twinning arrangements, arranged by country.
*
Cross-border town naming*
Partnership 2000*
International Association of Twinned Cities*
Town-twinning information from the
European Commission*
Sister Cities International*
Germany and the town twinning movement
