Many Europeans think that town twinning has greatly contributed to integration in Europe after the Second World War. This book, based on observations and interviews with twinning practitioners in small towns, reveals the social and cultural processes that inform twinning as a transnational practice, its perspectives and its limits.

This volume brings together views on the nexus and the conflicts between transformation of states and societies and transnationalization processes in politics, economy, and culture. Thematic articles and case studies deal with conditioned nations/states in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. These nations/states are, on the one hand, subjected to transnational institutions, models, and forces and cannot fall back on the model of the classic nation state. On the other hand, the issues traditionally linked to the nation state as a polity sovereignty, national economy,...