City-Twinning in Northern Europe Pertti Joenniemi and Alexander Sergunin

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When two aspire to become one: City-twinning in Northern Europe Pertti Joenniemi and Alexander Sergunin

DIIS Working Paper 2009:21 WORKING PAPER WORKING

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PERTTI JOENNIEMI Senior Researcher, DIIS [email protected]

ALEXANDER SERGUNIN Professor of International Relations St. Petersburg State University

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DIIS WORKING PAPER 2009:21 © Copenhagen 2009 Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS Strandgade 56, DK-1401 Copenhagen, Denmark Ph: +45 32 69 87 87 Fax: +45 32 69 87 00 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.diis.dk Cover Design: Carsten Schiøler Layout: Allan Lind Jørgensen Printed in Denmark by Vesterkopi AS ISBN: 978-87-7605-347-5 Price: DKK 25.00 (VAT included) DIIS publications can be downloaded free of charge from www.diis.dk

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CONTENTS

Abstract 4 Introduction 5 Cities Intruding the Sphere of International Relations 7 The City Twin Association 9 The Model of Tornio-Haparanda 11 Narva-Ivangorod: A Case of Partition 16 The Case of Imatra-Svetogorsk 22 Valga-Valka: Divided by Nationness 28 Concluding Remarks 31 References 36

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ABSTRACT

The paper probes four cases on city twinning (Imatra-Svetogorsk; Tornio- Haparanda; Valga/Valka; Narva/Ivangorod), all sharing a joint border and located in Northern Europe. However, it also aims at discussing the dynamics and future of twinning in a broader, more principal and critical perspective. It notes that although the legacies tend to pertain to the existence of rather divisive borders and despite a number of other obstacles, city twinning has more recently turned into an established form of crossing and doing away with the divisive effects of borders. The model of cities re-imagining their borders, activating them through increased cooperation and pooling resources increasingly impacts and changes the local landscapes but has broader state-related and European consequences as well. Twinning may conceptually stands out as a misnomer and ﬁgure as a problematic representation pertaining to paired border cities but it also appears quite hegemonic in terms of the naming used by an increasing amount of cities involved, a number of them now being located in Northern Europe.

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INTRODUCTION with non-socialist countries under the label of ‘sister-ship cities’ (goroda-pobratimy) point- Twinning is there as one of the departures ing to fraternal relations among the cities in used by cities in aspiring for a distinct, vis- question. Rather than a twin city – pointing ible and favourable profile. It is, in this sense, to far-reaching unity – the concepts used are part and parcel of their policies of place- those of ‘city twins’ or ‘double cities’ (dvojnoj marketing and branding in the context of the gorod), i.e. departures preserving at least some increasingly intense and transnational region- distinctiveness. alization. Thus, claiming that a city-pair cooper- There is, however, nothing ‘natural’ or ating across national borders amounts to inevitable in the use of the concept. Adja- twins is very much a choice and constitutes cent cities may, in fact, tap into a relatively one option among many. It may further be broad repertoire of naming in endeavouring noted that talking about twinning rather at strengthening the international features than utilizing some other conceptual depar- of their otherwise quite local and national ture and representation available stands out, profile by coalescing across statist borders. in comparison, as something particularly They may, for example, brand themselves demanding and challenging. The resorting as ‘connected cities’, ‘border-crossing cit- to the concept of twinning figures as a quite ies’, ‘trans-border cities’, ‘partnership cities’, ambitious move with the concept having ‘bi-national cities’ or ‘sister cities’. Moreo- connotations of similitude, like-minded- ver, they may use some of the labels avail- ness and pertaining to claims of an almost able on the EU-related menu such being an identical nature of the two entities involved. ‘Euroregion’. For example Malmö and Co- In pointing to shared and unified space, the penhagen regard themselves as ‘connected concept goes far beyond – as perceptively cities’ rather than twins (cf. Buursink, 2001). argued by van Houtum and Ernste (2001: Helsinki and Tallinn have, for their part, em- 103) – a mere functionalist strategy of reach- ployed the concept of ‘Euroregion’ in their ing across borders. The parties involved in cooperation (cf. Pikner, 2008a). Likewise, twinning do not just cooperate with each cities straddling borders may distinguish other while at the same time retaining their themselves through the use of more techni- rather different being (cf. Arreola, 1996). cal and project-related names or apply some Instead, they ride on notions pertaining to place-specific labels or tap into their joint similarity from the very start and articulate, history or some specific historical events in terms of policies of representation and offers applicable alternatives. Yet another scale, their very being by (re)connecting the option consists of networking with border- previously unconnected. Subsequently, they related cities coming together as a cluster aim at reducing various functional restraints rather than a pair. that tend to hide their rather identical na- As to Russia, there is the concept of ‘sput- ture and therewith the border located in-be- nik-cities’ coined initially during the Soviet tween the city-pair is narrated – instead of period in order to cover functional relations accepting its usual divisive impact and par- between cities either within the country or titioning effects – as something to be abol- in the sphere of the socialist countries. In ished. The border is turned, in the context some cases relations could be established of twinning, into a connective factor and a

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resource for a rather unified agglomeration so wide that concepts such as twinning have to emerge. been void of any credibility. This then also implies that being engaged Twinning thus amounts, once utilized as in twinning challenges quite sharply the tra- a departure for locally based cross-border ditional comprehensions of borders between cooperation, to a kind of liberation if not national states and the way borders are as- mutiny. It does so from the very start in be- sumed to unfold and function. Twinning ac- ing transnational and not just bi-national in tually boils down, in one of its aspects, to character. It is, in being transnational in char- a strategy employed by border-related cities acter, very much at odds with the standard in their efforts of restraining and revers- formula of nation-state building that is with ing the impact of border-drawing and more similarity located inside and difference placed generally the centripetal forces of modern on the outside. The degree of alleged simi- nation-building. It amounts to efforts of cir- larity in the context of twinning may vary cumventing and undermining the logic that – consisting either of being alike in the sense has usually deprived border-related cities of of shared citiness or having some specific any standing of their own in a transnational bonds and ‘natural’ properties supporting context. Instead of being recognized as in- claims pertaining to far-reaching unity – but teresting, legitimate and to some extent also it amounts in both cases to a breach in the important actors, they have more often than standard state-related discourse in having not been marginalized and seen as being lo- connotations of considerable unity and inti- cated at the fringes of their respective states mate connectedness reaching across national and subsequently also the state-dominated borders. It exhibits, if viewed in a traditional system of international relations. As argued perspective, more strongly than some of the by Jan Buursink (2001: 7), they have been other concepts employed by cities reaching seen as ‘pitiful’. Cities located at borders across national borders that the logic under- have been relatively rare to start with, and if girding cities coming together in the context nonetheless there, they have been depicted of their border-crossing activities may to a as subordinate actors and – owing to their large degree conflict considerably with the location in the vicinity of national borders way states usually outline and constitute their – perceived as end stations, i.e. void of any borders and border-related regions. contacts across the border. Having a twin One may thus suspect – and do so precisely on the other side of the border has in this because of the inherently offensive connota- context figured as something inconceivable tions inherent in the concept – that the city- as no conceptual and mental space has been pairs employing twinning as their departure available for any border-transcending pro- amount to political dreamscapes. They stand jections premised on alleged similarity and for visions rather than exemplify cases of unity. strong and concrete transnational integration. Overall, cities located at the vicinity of the Arguably, they have adopted evocative names national border have, rather than coming to- and coined tempting visions of togetherness gether, been expected to stay aloof from each but the energy created and released through other and turn their back towards those on the use of such narratives and imagineering the opposite side of the border. The psy- tend in the end to boil down to very little. chological distance has, in actual fact, been Naming does not automatically translate to

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tangible togetherness and concrete integra- their own and to do so even without any deci- tion. Twinning may hence, due to its rather sive supervision exercised by their respective challenging nature as a cross-border endeav- states. our, be too demanding to start with and As to Europe, the post-WWII logic of in- actually belong – together with a consider- tegration and interdependence provided the able number of other proposals and visions ground also for cities to aspire for together- launched since the end of the Cold War (cf. ness breaching previous divides. They could O’Dowd, 2003) – to dreams and visions al- participate in and join the endeavours of rec- most impossible to implement in terms of onciliation, and did so particularly across the actual togetherness and unification. French-German border (cf. Wagner, 1995). It Therefore, in order to pass judgement then turned out that the experiences gained on the relationship between the concept of in that context were equally applicable in the twinning and how city-twinning has fared sphere of the East-West conflict as the Cold in practice, we have chosen to probe some War was not just conducive to the emergence particular city-pairs employing such a depar- of a strict hierarchy, one premised on the pri- ture and engage in twinning. Our interroga- macy of states in the sphere of international tion is general in nature in the sense of being relations. It did not merely contribute to the directed at probing the different conceptual constitution of strictly divided and bordered departures used by the city-actors reaching political space but also allowed – towards out, although at the same time it remains the end of that period – cities to establish limited in spatial terms in being focused on town-to-town relations. Cities could thereby those cases of twinning located in North- contribute to the emergence of transnation- ern Europe that share a joint border. More al spaces, although they had to do so under particularly, the aim here is one of exploring conditions rather strictly controlled and su- critically four particular cases in which twin- pervised by states. Their motivations were ning consists of utilizing territorial proximity in the first place idealistic with cities aiming by reaching across statist borders in order to at de-polarization, the bolstering of mutual form a rather unified entity. understanding and the creation of ties of friendship between people across the East- West barrier. Cooperation itself was in the CITIES INTRUDING THE SPHERE first place symbolic in character and rarely OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS driven by any pragmatic concerns and interests. In remaining primarily symbolic in es- Looking back, the principles underpinning sence, the contacts established amounting to the Westphalian order provided little space for meetings between local leaders, the shaking other actors other than states in the sphere of of hands, cultural events and organizing festi- international relations and entities such as cit- vals but they could, in a few cases, also consist ies were expected to remain exclusively within of deliveries of aid and the establishment of the sphere of the ‘domestic’. However, the somewhat more permanent ties. prerogative of states to insert divisive bor- The contacts created and the networks ders has gradually eroded and consequently brought about could be seen as representing various sub-statist entities – including cities a kind of ‘diplomacy’. This is also evidenced – have been able to established relations of by that concepts such as ‘para-diplomacy’ or

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‘city diplomacy’ (van der Pluijm, 2007) have issues coming to the fore. Cities coalescence been coined in order to account for the rela- across borders in order to solve concrete and tions established. It is, however, worthwhile shared problems and this is done for reasons to note that cities do in general not aim at of their own and by employing the compe- applying and copying the principles and char- tence that they themselves harbour. They aim acteristic to state-to-state relations. They do at adding to their strength by transgressing not reach out on behalf of the state but do various borders – be they conceptual, iden- usually do so for reasons of their own. This tity-related or spatial – and do so by joining is to say that they do not regard the relations forces in the context of various regional en- established as an integral aspect of more deavours, or for that matter, through lobby- formal ‘foreign’ policies. As noted by Beate ing in various broader contexts. What used Wagner, (1998: 42), if cities try to copy the to be idealistically motivated and mainly citi- political type of relations that exist between zen-driven endeavours with issues such as states, they are most of the times unable to peace, friendship and mutual understanding develop the necessary plurality or bring about high on the agenda has more recently turned the trans-national quality of their relations. into something far more mundane and elite- Upholding the distinction between the sta- oriented. In essence, the driving force, one tist and the local, city-related departures con- spurred by various economic, social, cultural ceptually as well as a sphere of practice also as well as environmental concerns, amounts entails that states can for their part remain increasingly to that of self-interest. quite lenient vis-á-vis cooperation between Furthermore, the logic has turned EU-re- city-pairs. They may view the relations estab- lated rather than remained statist. With some lished as being in the first place societal and of the financial means available for twin- pragmatic in nature (rather than pertaining to ning and other forms of cooperation com- various spheres of ‘high-policy’ or security- ing from the European Union and related related concerns), this then allowing them to funds, the profile of the cities involved has stay aloof from any references to ‘diplomacy’ become quite Europe-oriented. Previously in the context of their quite non-politicised closed and barred spaces – with cities at the city-to-city relations. edge of statist space being unavoidably seen It may also be noted that it has become as peripheral – are opened up as these bor- easier to distinguish between the societal and der-regional entities aim at benefiting from more statist departures in the sphere city- cross-border networking. It may, more gener- based relations straddling borders. Whereas ally, be observed that cities have, for a variety the previous and more idealistically prem- of reasons, become part of an increasingly ised relations remained in some sense statist competitive logic, and they have been com- and political in nature – the aim of contacts pelled to devise active strategies of their own. between cities being one of contributing However, and significantly, they also seem to to statist policies in a constructive manner have the self-confidence required to do so and to complement and reproduce the con- and act in this context according to their own ciliatory endeavours part of statist policies self-understanding and specific needs. on a local level – the idealist features have It may also be noted that the constitutive over time basically disappeared. They have principles and departures undergirding citi- changed with economic and growth-oriented ness have some specific features. As claimed

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by James Donald (1999), the essence of be- This ‘liberation’ and reification is also very ing a city consists of the art of immediance. much visible in the form of various interna- It is premised on the ability of the citizens tional town associations that have over the to be present among strangers, as us among recent years experienced a boom in member- non-us. Zygmund Bauman (1995), for his ship. Cities part of Central Europe used to part, speaks of fellow-citizens as ‘inside- spear-head this trend (cf. Wagner, 1995 and strangers’. Difference is taken to comple- 1998), although those located in Northern ment similarity and it is furnished with rath- Europe have been very quick over the last er benign if not distinctly positive readings. two decades to catch up and join the trend There exists, as to social distance, both a fa- (Johansson and Stålvant, 1998). They have miliar presence and an anonymous absence coalesced through the Union of Baltic Cities in the city. It should hence be relative easy, (UBS), projects such as the Baltic Palette or by owing to these inherent properties, to push joining some other networks of twinning, i.e. the encounter further out without bringing a rather extensive network of ‘sister’ cities. arguments pertaining to statist concerns and security into the discourse. Or to state it differently: the established link between space THE CITY TWIN ASSOCIATION and identity may be ruptured and the essence of the city reproduced in a somewhat Crucially, twin cities do not just form individ- broader and differently bordered scalar con- ual pairs and the concept of twinning has not text through processes such as city twinning. merely been employed in the context of indi- Arguably, those properties ground the com- vidual pairs. Instead, twinning has also gained petence and ability of cities to take stock of more collective and institutional forms as twin the various opportunities opening up with cities are increasingly coalescing and coming the changing nature of Europe’s state-re- together in multilateral contexts. They have lated borders. done so in wishing to add to their visibility At large, although the networking of cities and by branding themselves more firmly as is in the first place underpinned by the logic cities of a particular kind. In order to com- of competition and carried by an interest in municate their specificity and to learn from conducting a kind of local ‘foreign economic each other through networking and with the policies’ (cf. Wellmann, 1998: 11) the con- aim of promoting joint interests in a Euro- sequences of such moves reach far beyond pean context, a number of city twins located the economic sphere. The currently ongoing in North Eastern Europe came together in economization of inter-city relations implies, 2004. The experiences gained in the context in one of its aspects, that cities now basically of these contacts then led to the establish- follow a rationale of their own in linking in ment the City Twins Association (CTA) in and networking with each other. They seem, 2006 (www.citytwins.net). in fact, to submit themselves less than used to Altogether 14 cities are associated with the be the case to departures that are in essence CTA, including two cities located in Russia. statist and aim instead, through new forms of The rest are contained within the EU, and signification and imagining space, at bolster- with Schengen being implemented since the ing their own subjectivity also in the sphere beginning of 2008 also in the case of the of transnational relations. new member states, the statist features of

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the transcended borders have lost much of tractiveness, and has done so particularly in their restrictive meaning amounting increas- Northeastern Europe. ingly to frontiers and border-spaces rather Some of the expressed aims of the CTA than divisive lines. Border-regions have still carry an echo of the previous ideologi- turned much more free, open and fluid in cally loaded period of city twinning. They do spatial terms. Notably, the member-cities so in pointing to aspirations such as those of are border-related with pairs being formed promoting mutual respect, cohesion and un- across national borders. Those joining as derstanding among the member-cities. Simi- members consist of Imatra-Svetogorsk, larly, there are references to the advancement Narva-Ivangorod, Frankfurt (Oder)-Slu- of neighbourliness and multiculturalism, al- bice, Görlitz-Zgorzelec, Tornio-Haparanda, though in the first place the aim is to share Valga-Valka and Ciezyn-Cesky Tiesin. They experiences in the sphere of problem-solving. aspire, above all, at advocating and devel- Basically the aim is one of converting their oping the brand of twin cities. In addition, border-related location usually associated with and in aiming at bolstering their visibility peripherality into an asset. This is to say that and learning from each other, they use their a rather self-centered and functionalist logic togetherness in applying for and financing prevails with the logic outlined also pointing joint projects. in general more to diversity than unity and Some of the pairs formed have been similarity. Thus the leveling down of differ- more successful than others, and the as- ences in living standards is mentioned as one sociation itself views Tornio-Haparanda of the more concrete and mundane tasks and and Imatra-Svetogorsk as belonging to the the broader aims consist of contributing to a more advanced and thriving cases whereas ‘Wider Europe’ on a local scale, although in Narva-Ivangorod is thought of as a “rath- practice the cities part of the network struggle er loose” city pair. Some stand out as es- with quite concrete issues. They do so above tablished and well-functioning whilst oth- all by aiming at bolstering their share of the ers represent more efforts of purporting benefits originating with cross-border activi- themselves as attractive and visible, i.e. ties, i.e. activities which usually tend to serve political dreamscapes rather than realities. non-local rather than local purposes. Kirkenes in northern Norway and Nikel Coming together undoubtedly adds to on the Russia side of the Norwegian-Rus- their visibility as local actors linked in a spe- sian border constitute the latest case of city cific way to each other in the context of Eu- twinning with an agreement being signed ropeanness. Moreover, it helps to anchor the in June 2008 between the foreign ministers concept of twinning in the public discourse of Norway and Russia (Barents Observer, by furnishing it with a distinct structural and 13.6.2008). Quite probably the Kirkenes- organizational background, although the ef- Nikel pair also joins, in due time, the CTA forts of branding and networking across the and it remains to be seen how the newcom- border do not imply that the twin city con- ers then succeed in employing and making cept would then also become more authorita- use of their recently declared and installed tive or established in legal terms. connectedness. In any case, their joining the In addition to local, regional and national ranks of city twins seems to indicate that (with states supporting the establishment and the concept of twinning has retained its at- utilization of cross-border contacts) financ-

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ing, Tacis and Interreg have been key sources They do not have a joint history in the sense utilized in the activities of the CTA and the of having been part of a unified whole – ex- cooperation that takes place between the twin cept that prior to Finnish and Swedish state- cities more generally. Occasionally financing building the region was a rather unified one has been received from various international consisting of Finnish-speakers and a Saami financing institutes such as the Nordic In- population – and, over time, they have also vestment Bank and the European Investment varied in size as well as wealth, although more Bank. recently the differences in living standard have been leveled out. Tornio with its 25.000 inhabitants is larger THE MODEL OF than Haparanda which has some 10.000 in- TORNIO-HAPARANDA habitants, although the relationship is in most respect quite symmetric. Tornio also has a Although operating within a rather well-es- rather coherent Finnish-speaking popula- tablished setting and regime of European tion (some 20 percent speak good or very cross-border co-operation, the interest in good Swedish according to Zalamans, 2001) projecting oneself as a twin city as well as whereas the population is more mixed in the symmetries, competence, interests, prob- Haparanda with three different language- lems and relevant infra-structures of the cit- groups basically of similar size inhabiting ies taking part vary considerably. They seem, the city. There are the ‘Tornedalians’ who are in fact, to represent rather diverse patterns the native population with Swedish citizen- of co-operation. In some cases similarity is ship, albeit with Finnish or ‘Meänkieli’ (usu- indeed present and the conceptual umbrella ally seen as a particular dialect of Finnish) as of twinning has really developed into an asset their language, the purely Swedish-speaking – as in the case of the city pair of Tornio and Swedes, and then the native Finns with Finn- Haparanda across the Finnish-Swedish bor- ish as their language, although often also with der and situated on either side of the border a competence in Swedish and perhaps also consisting of the Torne River in the northern- ‘Meänkieli’ (cf. Lunden and Zalamans, 2001; most part of the Baltic Sea region – whereas Zalamans, 2003). Tornio-Haparanda is hence, being located at the border still functions as in being quite diversified, more than just a ‘bi- an obstacle and a barrier in others. national city’ premised on Finnishness and The town of Tornio was initially established Swedishness. Cultural differences transcend- by the Swedish King in 1621 on the western ing nationally premised unity have been there side of the Torne River, to become part of already for a considerable period of time, and the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809. On the has constituted – particularly in the case of Swedish side a new town, Haparanda, was es- Haparanda – an integral part of the essence tablished in 1821 as a replacement of the loss of the cities from the very start. of Tornio. In this sense Hapanda came into Similarly, the exploitation of vicinity and being precisely because of the appearance of borders as a resource is not a new phenom- the border. It is also to be noted that in terms enon in the case of Tornio-Haparanda. Being of historical memory the Tornio-Haparanda divided only by a stretch of wetland, and with configuration stands out as a case of ‘dub- a tradition of many informal contacts on the licated cities’ (Buursink, 2001; Ehlers, 2001). level of the inhabitants reaching far back in

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history, the two cities started formal coopera- power – in attracting a considerable amount tion already in the 1960’s through the estab- of investments and businesses. The newly es- lishment of a joint swimming hall. Since then tablished IKEA furniture mall as part of the interest in cooperation has gradually grown city core is a case in point. amounting to the developed a very explicit On a very concrete plan, a unified area and strategy of transboundary cooperation and a joint core have been created constructing the formation of a joint planning and orga- unifying roads and connecting pathways as nization (Provincia Bothniensis) in 1985 in order well the establishment of a common circle to advance and cultivate the contacts further bus line. A further example of cooperation (Kujala, 2000). Hence, a twin city strategy of a rather practical and functional kind con- was coined in a top-down manner and has sists of the installment of letterboxes of the been implemented from 1987 onwards, and neighbouring postal administration with let- it has over time brought about a considerable ters consequently being treated as domestic degree of mutual trust and well-functioning mail (and therefore not circulated by send- cooperative relations. These have been con- ing them first to the capitals to be delivered ducive both to the identity of the entity cre- according to the usual border-dependent ated as well as the solving of a considerable rules). The establishment of such a short-cut number of rather practical problems. The lat- through moves of re-scaling and de-bordering ter range from a joint rescue and ambulance is, of course – in addition to the more practi- service, a tourist service, employment infor- cal gains – loaded with considerable symbolic mation agencies, joint schools and education- significance pointing to the far-reaching uni- al facilities with citizens provided with the ty. It implies, on the practical plane, that mail choice of picking the facility to their liking addressed to recipients across the border no to a common library. In particular, the par- longer has to be circulated through the postal ties pride themselves of a hotel complex with services located in the capitals and seen as a bar table stretching across the border and mail abroad but may instead be delivered on on a local golf course straddling not just the a different scale as purely local mail and mail national boundaries but also the difference not inhibited in its distribution by the loca- consisting of Finland and Sweden belong- tion of the national border. In other words, ing to different time zones (the story being the divisive effects of the border as a national that “even the shortest putt may take an our border have been radically circumvented as a to complete”). These properties have often consequence of twinning. been viewed as the very expression of the In short, by lowering the impact of bor- common space created through endeavours ders and utilizing the border-transcending ap- of city-twinning. proach as a joint resource, the two cities have The more recent developments pertain to succeeded in creating the image of a rather a new and joint city core being created, one broad and unified area of marketing (see bridging the two cities in a very concrete fash- www.pagransen.com). Their competitiveness ion. Significantly, the two towns have gradu- and attractiveness has also increased with ac- ally succeeded – in being conducive the emer- cess to a broader variety of various labour gence of a broader area spanning also parts skills and other competences. Obviously, the of nearby Russia and northernmost Norway unified appearance of the partners as a twin with a considerable amount of purchasing city with integrated strategies has been far

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more beneficial than just appearing on their just their togetherness but also their stand- own and with the various restrictive functions ing as cities competing for prominence and of the border intact. visibility (Pikner, 2008b: 19). It has to be noted, however, that also some This is also to say that their locally pre- broader trends of development have facili- mised togetherness has grown so intense that tated a lowering of the border. In fact, the it challenges various forms of administrative border has not been much of an obstacle and legal departures premised on nationness. since the 1960’s owing to intense Nordic co- Finnishness and Swedishness has to compete operation. It has been quite easy for Nordic seriously, in the case of Tornio-Haparanda, citizens to transgress, and with Finland and with the effort of introducing a new scaling Sweden joining the European Union in 1995 that rests on perceptions of a local and bor- the border has turned almost invisible. EU- der-transgressing unity, one further strength- membership has further spurred coopera- ened by the anchorage of both cities in Eu- tion, and it has done so above all by allowing ropeanness. and inviting for a jumping of scale by labeling One interesting development, as to the various endeavours as European rather than conceptual departures used – one testifying local. Likewise, increased financial means to considerable EU-related influences – per- have been available and hence the projects as- tains to that in addition to the epithet of a pired for have over the recent years become ‘twin city’ also the one of ‘EuroCity’ has been larger and more ambitious. employed since the beginning of the 1990s. It has consequently become more easy The usage of such an alternative marker quite and rewarding for political decision-makers obviously points to efforts of developing an as well as city-administrations to pursue poli- alternative to the concept of twinning – as cies of cross-border integration. The benefits does the increased use of the more mundane of joining ranks as partners of such coop- and space-specific label of the Haparanda- eration have, in fact, been quite formidable, Tornio region. Initially the reference to Eu- and hence both Tornio and Haparanda have ropeanness was applied by Provincia Bothni- expressed their wish to proceed further even ensis as a marketing strategy in aspiring for dreaming occasionally of one city located in added visibility and closer commercial ties. two different states. They clearly aim at in- The project was not, in formal terms, much tensifying and bringing their togetherness of a success as it was to some extent resisted towards the forming of an integrated entity. by the Finnish side. However, the label Eu- This has remained the aspiration despite of roCity as a form of scaling has survived and that this unification across borders is not al- has subsequently moved over to a broader ways, on a formal plane, in line with national sphere in covering the cooperation between legislations. However, and this obstacle not- the two cities at large. Being anchored in Eu- withstanding, they have not dropped the ropeanness rather than nationness, nordic- ambition and anecdotal evidence suggests ity or just pointing to detached local entities that there is an interest to push the process coming together seems to have taken a life further through various local initiatives. The of its own. For example, the electronic news- city-pair remains hopeful, it appears, that paper informing about developments in the their aspiration of unity will materialize in Tornio-Haparanda region is to be found by the not so distant future thus bolstering not probing www.eurocitynet.nu.

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Similar features of emplotting a broader, to be the case particularly on the Swedish side locally based and yet Europe-related unity are and among the exclusively Swedish-speaking present in the sphere of currencies. Finland population. They tend to feel that the down- has gone over to the euro whereas Sweden has playing of differences favours too much the stayed with its national currency. This state of Finnish-speakers on both sides of the border. affairs would imply, if both cities remain loyal Lundén and Zalamans (2001: 36) also point to the policies of their respective states, that out that there is a legacy on the Swedish side Tornio and Haparanda remain divided due to of the border to view Finland as “poor, dan- the existence of different national currencies. gerous or irredentist”. However, the euro seems to have turned into The authors find that earlier nationalist a valid currency also on the Swedish side of indoctrination, with the nation-states intrud- the national borders and the Swedish crown ing into what previously used to exist as a is equally a valid currency on the side of Tor- relatively homogeneous cultural region in the nio. Moreover, Haparanda has locally made North, figures as one underlying reason ac- the decision to use euros extensively in its cal- counting for the previous unwillingness to culations and budgeting, among other things look across the border. There is the worry, as in order to facilitate the planning and imple- to the politics of memory, that the introduc- mentation of joint projects with Tornio. Both tion of markers of political and social space issues – the label of EuroCity and the euro other than the nationally based ones could in- as a joint currency – have profound symbolic hibit and undermine the standing of Swedis- importance in allowing the re-imagined cities ness and the differences upon which such a to be increasingly seen as being integrated and national marker rests. unified along the lines of broader European Furthermore, as to success and resistance, development. In the context of this concep- one may also note that the issue of twinning tual departure, they are no more located just has been in focus of public debate. Actually, a at the edge of their respective countries in a local referendum was organized in Haparanda bi-national manner but also eligible to claim in September 2002 concerning the construc- for some centrality by branding themselves as tion of a joint city core. The result turned out a coherent EuroCity in a broader, European to be negative with a slight majority of those context. participating voting against the plan (Lunden, Arguably, the term EuroCity might turn 2007:26; Pikner, 2008b: 11). The suggested out to be more acceptable also because has form of unity was rejected, although the plan connotations of being somewhat more tech- has nonetheless been implemented and a nical, commercial and administrative and less joint core, one testifying quite concretely to identity-related in pointing to considerable that the two entities are well on their way of unity from the very start (although it has to being quite integrated, has been constructed. compete hard with the more down-to-earth Moreover, it also appears that public opinion label of the Haparanda-Tornio region). It has later turned more approving of border- may be noted against this background that transcending cooperation between the two assertions of far-reaching unity and the con- cities (Heliste et.al., 2004: 24; Ekberg and sequent lowering and reaching across the Kvist, 2004: 5). border has also, on occasions, been met with Taken together, development towards a some resentment and resistance. This appears more unified entity is increasingly supported

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– or at least accepted and tolerated – by the youth in terms of grounding identity and ac- inhabitants. The formation of joined lived tion. It thus seems that on occasions the gap space is there, and this is the case despite of premised on profound difference rather than that the stress on unity also tends paradoxi- mental proximity is still experienced as real cally to make visible and highlight those as- and consequently the fellow citizens across pects of being where differences still prevail the twin city are slotted in the category of (cf. Löfgren, 2008: 197). The openness vis- insider-strangers to be treated with estrange- à-vis other markers competitive in regard to ment or at least with a considerable degree Swedishness has thus, it appears, been found of indifference. In other words, the twin city less problematic and over time more easy to does not yet fully function as a unified city in accept. a proper sense of the word, one inviting for If examined more in detail, it appears that encounters with a new category of insider- in particular the functional aspects of tran- strangers. scending geographic borders are conducive It is to be noted however, and some reser- to the appearance of joint space whereas the vations notwithstanding, that in broad terms cultural and identity-related barriers seem Tornio and Haparanda show – despite co- more difficult to straddle. One indication of operation having initially developed rather this latter aspect consists of that there are, slowly due to a number of problems – signs among the youth, still a considerable number of being well on their way of developing of inhabitants prioritizing national departures into a rather integrated and unified commu- and the formation of a distinctively bordered nity. Thinking and acting beyond the border local space. Hence Haparanda is seen as a bor- under the label of a twin city has produced der-located city in a traditional sense, and one formidable results. In crossing the borders of considerably different from the neighbouring the respective cities themselves, also statist Tornio. As a consequence, part of the youth borders have been transcended with a previ- have tended to turn their back rather than ously divisive border-area turning into an in- opening up towards the options offered by tegrated borderland. The strangeness of the the changing character of the national border other, a quality that in an urban environment between the twin cities (Jukarainen, 2000). It according to Baumann (1995) and a number seems, in essence, that the youth is not in- of other authors often translates to some- clined to approve of or interested in utilizing thing non-threatening in nature and perhaps the increased spatial and temporal reach of coins indifference, has in the context of the the unfolding of transborder space and pro- new and joint trans-border city been actively vided by the increased unity. Instead, the tra- converted into commonality. The usual pro- ditional, nationally based mental and identity- tective distance between border-located cities related gap between the two options remains has been traded for tangible feelings of to- in place and the city is, as to the unfolding of getherness anchored in a joint and fluid trans- cultural and identity-related space, rejected in border space underpinned by Europeanness. favour of the traditional, nationally bordered As such, the border remains in place, albeit constellation. now constructed differently: It predominant- The unifying aspects of the broader con- ly connects and facilitates cooperation. The figuration are hence not present as images cooperative potential has in the first place and representations for some part of the been activated on local level by the cities

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themselves. They have, in imaging and rep- having experienced periods of rule by Den- resenting themselves differently, prioritized mark, Livonia, Russia, Sweden and again their mutual relations over separateness and Russia. They have, moreover, been impacted difference. Activity has been preferred over by the rights and privileges granted to the passivity. They have done so in a process- Baltic German nobility in the area by both driven manner, although the frame conducive the Swedish and Russian overlords (Smith, to such endeavours has been brought into 2002: 90). The collision of broader inter- being by broader forces and developments. ests is well exemplified by the two historical In any case, and due to the positive experi- fortresses, Long Hermann (also called the ences gained, people, goods as well as ideas Narva Castle) and that of Ivangorod, facing increasingly flow across the border, and do each other across the Narva/Narova River. so almost without restrictions. The two cit- The sites (Ivangorod became a city quite late) ies involved in twinning have increasingly be- have functioned as a single composite settle- come to be defined not by separation as has ment for nearly three and a half centuries, traditionally been the case but through their first under Swedish rule in the 16th century interrelated being and connectedness. And in and then later during the tsarist period with consequence, the spatiality outlined by bor- Muscovy having conquered Narva during dering has changed boiling in essence down the mid-sixteen century Livonian Wars (cf. to the emergence of a considerable degree of Kirby, 1990; Smith, 2002). They were then trans-border commonality. incorporated, with Estonia’s first period of independence, into the eastern county of Virumaa. After a brief period of Bolshevik NARVA-IVANGOROD: A CASE OF control during late 1918 to early 1919, when PARTITION Narva functioned as the seat of the abortive ‘Estonian Workers’ Commune’, both towns Out of the various city pairs located in north- were incorporated into the Estonian Repub- ern Europe, those of Narva-Ivangorod and lic under the terms of the 1920 Treaty of Imatra-Svetogorsk also entail Russian cities Tartu (Burch and Smith, 2007: 922). as part of the emerging constellation. The re- Their togetherness in the context of Esto- cent appearance of the case of Kirkenes and nia changed by the outbreak of WWII, and it Nikel – based on an agreement between the did so initially with the Germans taking over Norwegian Sør-Varanger community and the both of them in the lead up to the siege of Pechanga district of the Murmansk region in Leningrad. The turmoil and suffering took yet June 2008 – as a city-pair engaged in twinning another turn with the Narva River becoming adds yet another Russian town to the list of the frontline after the Germans had failed to northern twin cities. take Leningrad. The Estonian population of Among these paired cities, Narva and the prewar period was evacuated from the city Ivangorod have either been part of a joint of Narva by the Nazi army. The de-Estoni- configuration or have stood opposite to anization and de-Europeanization continued each other. Their histories as border-related with the withdrawing German troops and the entities and sites where a major connective Red Army destroying towards the end of the route has crossed a river tend to be com- war the ancient city, except the fortresses and plex as well as tragic with the two entities the baroque style city hall (Kaiser and Niki-

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forova, 2008: 10). Being integrated into the siderably in 1991 with the Narva River now Soviet sphere entailed, in one of its aspects, delimiting a de facto state border. The two en- that most of the Estonian population was de- tities can thus – with the new border being ported to Siberia and a immigration of Rus- institutionalized and an international bor- sian-speakers followed. Administratively, the der-crossing set up on the bridge connecting conjoined status of the two cities changed the two towns – be analytically slotted in the in 1945 with Ivangorod becoming part of a category of ‘partitioned cities’ (Buursink, Russia Republic, although they continued to 2001: 8). form a rather closely connected functional The divorce between the two cities was in and cultural space despite the drawing of the many ways, in view of their previously far- administrative border. reaching togetherness, quite drastic as well as The two entities then gradually recovered contentious. It entailed, among other things, in the immediate post-war period, although that a common transport system ceased to Narva turned increasingly in this context into exist and similarly a common phone system a typical Russian provincial town. Various was divided into two different systems. In signs reminding of its previous Estonian- 1996, a Baltic electricity station located in Es- ness turned rather weak and symbols point- tonia closed down heating in one of the Ivan- ing to European links – such as monuments, gorod districts. The deterioration of a rather architectural sites or in general the rather in- connected city space into two different ones ternational atmosphere that the city had en- created feelings of a loss and a variety of joyed as a summer resort with beaches not plans and projects were proposed primarily too far from the city (located in the nearby the leadership of Narva for togetherness to town of Narva-Jõensuu) – had for the most be bolstered. For example, the idea of Narva part been destroyed during the war (Jauhi- and its environs as a Special Economic Zone ainen, 2000; Lundén, 2002). A large textile was coined in 1990. Common to the propos- factory (Kreenholm Manufacture) remained als were demands for increased autonomy in and was re-invigorated in Narva providing the spheres of taxation, culture, education, grounds for a kind of proletarian identity to healthcare, social provision and electoral law be cultivated. Several extensive power sta- (Smith, 2002: 94). In 1993 the citizens of tions were built in the vicinity of the town Narva – consisting up to 96 percent of Rus- to profit from the extensive deposits of oil sian-speakers – voted by an overwhelming shale in the region. majority for a more autonomous position (sa- Narva remained much larger with more mostoiatel ’nost’) and a kind of ‘special status’. than 70.000 inhabitants whereas Ivangorod Subsequently, a declaration was issued to that had some 10.000 people living in the city effect, although the question – generating forming thus a ‘suburb’ and appendix of fears of secession – was soon settled with the Narva. Obviously, the relationship has been help the OSCE High Commissioner on Na- somewhat one-sided from the very start. The tional Minorities, Max van der Stoel (www.ne- two towns had their respective city adminis- tuni.nl/courses/conflict1/week2/2.4_week. trations, but figured – despite being situated html). In any case, the turning into a ‘parti- each in their respective Soviet Republic – as tioned city’ was problematic and strained in a rather integrated social and cultural space a number of ways. Quite concretely, an entity during the Soviet period. This changed con- with a common water drainage and sewage

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system, transport network, dense labour con- course strengthened contrasting notions such tacts and kinship ties between the two mu- as ‘we’ and ‘they’. Neighbours are ‘there, over nicipalities, constituting a single and rather the bridge’ and ‘on the other side of the bor- unified ethno-cultural as well as functional der’. Despite the broadly shared ethnic and urban space, suddenly became divided by a linguistic background of the inhabitants, there new state border (Berg, et.al., 2006: 8; Pikner, was at least initially a growing orientation on 2008a). A previously transparent and admin- both sides away from the border to be detect- istrative border allowing for fluid space to ed (Berg et.al., 2003: 8; Brednikova, 2007: 60). unfold turned into a statist border with con- It also appears that the Estonian membership siderable functions of a barrier and line of in the EU and then in NATO as forms of Eu- separation. ropeanness have, instead of bridging the gap In addition to the local issues pertaining as might perhaps be expected, further accen- to water drainage and sewage systems (after tuated the split. However, the various adverse much quarrelling about the debts caused by features part of the new constellation have the services provided by Narva), Ivangorod also implied that attention has been devoted had in the end to construct systems of its to the problems caused by the re-appearance own (see Tüür et.al., 1999; Pikner, 2008a). of the border and resources have constant- Moreover, the border was initially quite con- ly been mobilized in order to find solutions. troversial also in a statist sense. The new post- For example, the “Narva Forum” organized Soviet border did not correspond to the Es- in 1997 on the initiative of the OSCE with tonian-Russian border as defined in the Tartu both Russian and Estonian authorities par- Peace Treaty of 1920, and the de facto border – ticipating, is a case in point (www.ctc.ee/nar- which also left the eastern bank of the Narva va_forum_report.pdf). The themes discussed River and the town of Ivangorod outside the at the forum included suggestions concern- independent Estonia – thus remained a bone ing a closer cooperation between Narva and of contention for quite some time between Ivangorod in order for the new border not to Estonia and Russia. The question was, how- turn into a distinctly dividing line and instead ever, settled in the end by deciding that the representations depicting the border as a re- “temporary control line” also stood for the source and a unifying factor were constructed final de jure border. An agreement, premised and implemented during the years to follow. on the existing border, was reached between At large, a dialogue has been re-established the Russian and Estonian governments, al- in order for adjacency to work more posi- though not finally approved with Russia re- tively and provide ground for the formation acting negatively to efforts by the Estonian of a connected borderland. The vocabularies Parliament to add a reference to past injustice employed at least immediately after the re-ap- to the preamble. In any case, the border now pearance of the state border have been about works in a rather normal manner despite of “the strengthening and restoration of dialogue that the delineation still lacks ratification due between communities”. This was also the ap- to disagreements related mainly to politics proach applied for example by the Council of of memory and interpretations of historical Europe once Narva was included on its list of events (cf. Joenniemi, 2008: 139-142). cases to be explored (together with other cases The quarrelling and the appearance of a such as Belfast, Mitrovitsa and Nicosia) in the rather divisive border have in the local dis- context of a project focusing on ‘Intercultural

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Dialogue and Conflict Prevention’ (Susi and Ivangorod have over time increasingly gained Roll, 2003). Yet, and despite increasing togeth- a common voice in the efforts of influenc- erness, the problems to be remedied remain ing such processes. Ivangorod in particular numerous. In addition to the various contested has aspired to create and strengthen the lo- issues that originated with the severing of the cal contacts as the traffic has been too heavy previously integrated infrastructure, both Nar- for the old infrastructure connecting he cit- va and Ivangorod have been known for a con- ies to endure. Premised on joint representa- siderable level of unemployment and various tions pertaining to connections in the form social ills such as drugs, crime and HIV. Ivan- of differently located bridges, roads and gorod in particular has suffered from people control, facilities have over the recent years not finding work, owing in the first place to the been planned and some have also been con- increased restrictions preventing employment structed. It hence appears that Narva and on the side of Narva and at the Kreenholm Ivangorod have, in this context, succeeded factory. Both cities seem to have gained a nega- in identifying their joint interests. Moreover, tive reputation in terms of urban degeneration they have to a large extent coordinated their (Lundén, 2002: 142-144). policies, this then also contributing to feelings As such, the city-pair has remained con- of communality (cf. Kaiser and Nikiforova, nected in some respects but it has at the same 2008: 546-48). time to be noted that the linkages have largely Some common activities and projects pertained to road and rail traffic between Es- have appeared specifically under the heading tonia and Russia more generally, and Tallinn of ‘twin cities’, although the label seems to and St. Petersburg in particular. The scale un- have been used somewhat sparsely. Notably, derpinning cooperation and connectedness joint appearances have also seen the light of has been national rather than local. Local the day in the spheres of culture, tourism, interests have in most cases been subordi- employment policies, facilitation of border- nated to the more general regional and statist crossing, coordination of spatial planning ones. Thus, rather than benefitting from be- and improvements in infra-structure. ing a hub, Narva as well as Ivangorod have Joining the City Twin Association and in many ways suffered from such a posture. being represented in a more europeanised For example, the road traffic that has been context seems to have been crucial fro Nar- running through the city cores has been con- va and Ivangorod in providing a platform siderable, and with the predominance of the for the articulation of commonality. Being various control-related and statist activities part of the CTA has been, it seems, quite which have emerged with the new border, conducive to the process of coming togeth- the ability of the two cities to impact their er and cooperating. The association of twin own centers has been severely curtailed. De- cities has provided a frame and an umbrella velopment has, in terms of politics of scale, acceptable to various parties and in particu- been largely dictated by national concerns as lar the two cities themselves. The brand of well as by EU-related processes in the form twin cities increasingly conveys an innova- of implementing various Schengen-imposed tive and open image that is very different – regulations and procedures. if not opposite – to the one which prevailed It has, against this background, been of during the first part of the 1990s. Coopera- considerable importance that Narva and tion has been facilitated within a broader

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frame part of EU-Russia relations in the ser and Nikiforova (2008: 18), converting the sense that a specific visa-exchange arrange- fortresses into a common resource implies, in ment has come into being between Narva one of its aspects, that elements of Narva- and Ivangorod. In 1992 and the years to Ivangorod as an inter-linked borderland have follow up to 2000 local residents have been seen the light of the day. annually able to cross the river visa-free on However, the emphasis on creating in this the basis of a special permit (Smith, 2002: context bonds between the citizens premised 104). This changed with Estonia deciding on twinning does not seem to have been in line with the Schengen requirements to overwhelming. As to lived space, strang- implement a full visa regime with Russia. ers are predominantly kept outside the city However, in order to compensate for the gates. As such, language unifies and provides loss of privileges for local residents at the space for communality as also most people border, a new agreement between Estonia in Narva are Russian-speaking but the con- and Russia stipulated that both sides can tacts across the border do not appear to be issue up to 4.000 multi-entry visas annu- very frequent or dense on the level of or- ally to border residents having compelling dinary life. This is so because of a variety needs to cross the border regularly (Joen- of very practical hindrances, including those niemi, 2008: 11). pertaining to costs and time consumed in The more concrete projects aiming at cre- the context of border-crossing. It may also ating transborder space have consisted of de- be noted that in terms of favourable ex- velopment and promotion of tourist routes changes, Ivangorod has relatively little to of- in the Narva River basin, establishment of a fer as to shopping, cultural experiences or joint tourist route covering the two fortresses employment. on their respective side of the river, devel- Yet, the main obstacle to the emergence opment of a historical promenade along the of communality seems to consist of the ex- both sides of the Narva River, plugging joint- istence of a considerable mental and identi- ly into the Baltic Sea small harbours network ty-related distance. The gap premised on the as a unified touristic site, development of a two cities turning their back on each other joint water tourist route and construction of has not necessarily been shrinking. Julia Bo- an aqua park in the border area. These proj- man and Eiki Berg (2007: 206) note that ects have been funded under the TACIS and there is no perception of local cross-border INTERREG programs. It should also be historical-cultural identity: “People in Nar- noted that rather than capitalizing on the two va possess some kind of ‘Narvian’ identity fortresses standing on their respective side which is not Russian anymore, but has not of the river as exemplifying and naturalizing become Estonian either”. Rather then meet- hostility and detachment not only locally but ing each other, the opposite seems to be also more generally between the East and true as it appears, among other things, that the West, Europe as well as non-Europe, the over the recent years Ivangorod has been story has been converted into one of a joint attracted and impacted by the construction heritage. This has recently been evidenced of new harbour facilities such as the mega- by a jointly application submitted together at project of Ust-Luga in the nearby area and UNESCO in order to turn the fortresses to is considerably touched by the dynamics cre- a site of World Heritage. As noted by Kai- ated by such projects. This then implies, as

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to the policies of scale, that Russianness has only in regard to national but to some ex- been bolstered because of the increased op- tent also in relation to local identities. Na- portunities offered by plugging into the re- tionness has particularly on the Estonian gional dynamics on the Russian side of the side been bolstered by various narratives border with Ivangorod becoming less bor- pertaining to Huntingtonian-type of con- der-dependent than previously. It may also ceptualization premised on the existence of be noted that the overall relations between a clash of civilizations. It then also follows Russia and Estonia have remained somewhat that Narvanness – if seen as being infused tense and there has consequently been little with a considerable amount of Russian- room for maneuver to be utilized in the cre- ness, be it in terms of ethnicity, language ation of local level in-between spaces. There or connectedness across the border – eas- have, in fact, been scant opportunities for ily gains – as noted by Robert Kaiser and border-transcending identities premised on Elena Nikiforova (2008: 22) – features of closeness between the two adjacent cities to unacceptable otherness in the Estonian na- emerge. Narva, for its part, has showed signs tional debate. of turning increasing inwards – with the Twinning thus unavoidably turns into a struggle being about how much space there rather loaded theme. This sensitivity might is both in regard to speciﬁc Narvannness in also account for why the label of twin city relation to an Estonian national identity as has predominantly gained connotations of well as Europeanness and being part of the de-politicization and interest-oriented co- West more generally. The inclusion of Nar- operation of a very practical and mundane vanness into Estonianness has in this con- kind. It has been deliberately narrowed down text called for quite sharp delineations in re- to apply to explicitly functional issues such gard to Russianness, or to put it differently, as city planning and various interest-related opening up vis-à-vis the difference seen to be contacts between the respective administra- embedded in the inhabitants of Ivangorod tions, and has not been brought to any major would be a risky and contested move. This extent into the public sphere. Interestingly, is so as it could be seen as adding further if linked to various broader discourses on to the perceived strangeness of the inhabit- Europeanisation, it would be conducive to a ants of Narva themselves in the sphere of transcending of the various local and national Estonianness. Their Estonianness, to some dead-locks and tensions. To some extent this extent questioned from the very start owing appears to have taken place and the concept to historical and cultural reasons, would re- hence appears to enjoy sufﬁcient legitimacy main in doubt and they would continue to in the overall discourse. The very concrete be categorized as almost a ‘non-us’ within a problems that both Narva and Ivangorod political and cultural landscape premised on have encountered and have to deal with a relative clear nation-building formula of in being located at the border have clearly similarity inside and difference outside the contributed to this. Twinning thus seems, in borders of the state. appearing as a kind of ‘third’ and Europe- It is obvious against this background that related option, to have been able over the re- the emphasis on twinning has openly had cent years to generate some – albeit limited elements of a kind of counter-narrative in – features of communality across the border view of the dominant stories pertaining not (cf. Brednikova, 2007: 62).

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THE CASE OF As a consequence, for a long time the two IMATRA-SVETOGORSK cities had the character of ‘border cities’ with very little if any contacts between them. Im- For quite some time Imatra and Svetogorsk atra turned towards the rest of Finland whilst occupied the standing of a rather special case Svetogorsk was above all connected with the in the sphere of EU-Russia relations. The nearby city of Vyborg and the Soviet Union two cities, located on their respective sides more generally. On a symbolic level, the two of the Finnish-Russian border, were as such entities were very much purported as not only unique in terms of their location in constitut- being detached and severed from each other ing the only place on the EU-Russia border by a divisive border but also adverse in rela- where both rail and automobile border cross- tion to each other. ings existed. Prior to the EU enlargement of Yet some communality gradually emerged. 2004 – with Narva-Ivangorod now forming a It was above all premised on their geographic similar case – they stood out as the only re- location and the existing natural conditions gion located immediately at the EU-Russian in the sense that the urbanised area of Im- frontier with the boundary separating two atra-Svetogorsk is located on the banks of adjacent urban settlements from each other. the river Vuoksi (Vuoksa in Russian), which is The cooperation initiated added further to the outlet of Finland’s largest lake (Saimaa), their unique nature. flowing across the border to Europe’s largest In the context of the classification regard- lake (Ladoga). As to symmetry, about two- ing ‘partitioned’ and ‘dublicated’ cities, the thirds of the urban population lives on the case of Imatra-Svetogorsk contains elements Finnish side (Imatra: 29.000 inhabitants) and of both. It used to be an integrated entity both one-third on the Russian one (Svetogorsk: within the Russian Empire and then in the in- 15.500 inhabitants, although the surrounding dependent Finland after 1917. However, as a Lesogorsk (3.800 inhabitants) will be drawn result of, first, Soviet-Finnish ‘Winter war’ of into the constellation in being merged with 1939-1940 and then WWII, the Finnish-Rus- Svetogorsk in 2010. sian border was re-drawn and the previously There is also considerable asymmetry to be coherent industrial centre of Enso was split detected in the sense that the economic dis- by the new border. In that context the main parity at the Finnish-Russian border in terms part of the area remained on the Finnish of GDP per capita has been greater than in side, although a large pulp and paper factory any other part of the EU-Russia border re- stayed on the Soviet side. With the previous gion, although the differences have levelled population having moved over to the Finnish out during the recent years. This is so basi- side, it took some time before the area was cally owing to the favourable industrial devel- re-populated. In January 1949 the city of Sve- opment encountered in Svetogorsk and the togorsk (i.e.the City of Light Hills) came into down-turn experienced on the Finnish side in being (Paasi, 1998; Eskelinen and Kotilainen, the case of Imatra. However, it is also to be 2005: 38; http://svetogorsk.ru/portal/index. noted that the border location and the exist- php?option=com_content&task=category& ence of a relatively developed transport infra- sectionid=5&id=31&Itemid=38). Similarly, structure, including the establishment in 2002 Imatra evolved into a more coherent munici- of an international border-crossing, both add pal entity. to their attractiveness as potential sites for in-

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ternational business projects. To some extent Development Company, aimed at being a such a connectedness has already materialised pilot phase for a zone of joint entrepreneur- in the form of the American owned paper ship. However, the unifying endeavour never mill in Svetogorsk. really materialised in the turbulent circum- It may be noted, though, that up to the stances of that time and was in the end sunk 1970s the two neighbour towns developed by the decline in the Russian economy and in isolation from each other. This started to does not even figure as a vision in the cur- change in 1972 as a large construction project rent discourse. was launched as a joint Finnish-Russian en- Conceptually, the twin city concept ap- deavour in order to expand Svetogorsk and to peared into the vocabularies applied in the reconstruct the paper combine located in the late 1990s, and it did so above all due to ad- city (Lilja et. al., 1994; Mikkonen and Nup- vice provided by various consultants. The ponen, 2007). The arrangements took place logic suggested in terms of re-branding and on the level of states and did not involve bolstering the rather peripheral image of the Imatra in any particular manner, although a two cities was embedded in Europeanness temporary border crossing was opened thus and this was also conducive to the appear- extending and facilitating local contacts. Im- ance of the idea of twinning as one form portantly, it remained in use and served spe- of unified space. In any case, in 2001 Imatra cial arrangements even after the completion and Svetogorsk signed a cooperation agree- of the project in the 1980s (Eskelinen and ment and decided to opt – based on EU- Kotilainen, 2005: 37). related financing – for a common develop- In the early 1990s – after the demise of the ment strategy, although it appears that the Soviet Union – local level cooperation took two cities have never declared themselves quite spontaneous and sometimes also quite formally as constituting a twin city. In 2000, chaotic forms. Entrepreneurial individuals as a pilot project to develop the twin-cities well as various organisations utilised the op- strategy for the short-term (2002-2003) and portunity to visit the other side of the border long-term (2006-2010) periods was started launching occasionally also small-scale col- under the aegis of the Tacis program. The laborative activities. SWOT-analysis for the development of the These quite sporadic contacts then paved Imatra-Svetogorsk region and recommen- a way to the first formal agreement between dations for practical implementation of the Imatra and Svetogorsk on cross-border co- twin-cities concept were produced (http:// operation in 1993. The document envisaged svetogorsk.ru/portal/index.php?option= cooperation in areas such as economy, trade, com_content&task=category§ionid=5 education, culture, sport, etc. The specific &id=31&Itemid=38). content of the various cooperative projects The initiative was very much a local one envisioning togetherness were clarified by (although also an offspring of the construc- signing annual protocols. tion projects previously initiated by the The next important step on the road to- states) in character. Yet the actual practices wards increased contacts consisted of the proceeded quite slowly and remained rather “Imsveto” project. It aspired at develop- fragmentary in the early years. One concrete ing an industrial park in Svetogorsk. This aspect of togetherness consisted of the project, prepared by the Imatra Regional interaction created by a paper factory (the

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firstly Swedish and then American-owned and Svetogorsk (December) (http://www. International Paper Ltd, previously known lenobl.ru/). as the Svetogorsk Mill) being located on the More recently, increased cooperation has Russian side with some of the employees taken place in the sphere of health and so- commuting daily across the border. This cial security issues. There are also some new implies that Svetogorsk is a border-depend- plans (under the EU-Russian ‘neighborhood ent city. The stream has continued, and ac- partnership’ program) to built a free-way that cording to available information, currently bypasses Svetogorsk and Imatra to eliminate some 60 (of those living on the Finnish the bottle-neck on the Russian-Finnish bor- side) persons commute regularly across the der and improve the transport communica- border. In commuting, they have to travel tion system between the two countries. The in a vehicle, although bikes are included in governments of the Leningrad Region and that category. Recently, one joint project South-East Finland are seen as principal part- in the sphere of twinning has consisted of ners. The Lappenraanta University of Tech- constructing biking lanes available for those nology and the Svetogorsk municipality and commuting across the border. enterprises are planned to be co-partners Finland’s accession the EU in the mid- of the project worth of some €5-6 million 1990’s then opened up new options for twin- (http://asninfo.ru/asn/57/13792). ning. Among other things, the membership The general aim of twinning has been that and the accompanying emphases on Europe- of “improving the welfare of the inhabitants anness, made various funds available for the of the both towns” (Hurskainen, 2005: 132), regional cross-border cooperation. Of the i.e. facilitate border-crossing and communal- EU financial instruments, Imatra and Sve- ity in order to bolster the use of the resources togorsk have utilised both Interreg and Tacis available to the two increasingly conjoined ur- CBC to fund various joint projects. For exam- ban settlements. ple, construction of the cross-border point The visa regime on the Finnish-Russian between Imatra and Svetogorsk (launched in border remains a concern in the context of July 2002) was one of the largest cooperative the twin city arrangement, although several projects funded by the Tacis CBC (€6.75 mil- categories of Finnish and Russian citizens are lion) (http://www.delrus.ec.europa.eu/ru/ eligible for multiple long-term visas (covering news_231.htm). 1-3 years, and for free, although this latter as- Moreover, cooperative projects pertaining pect has not always materialized in practice). to energy services in Svetogorsk, improv- This goes for diplomats, businessmen/engi- ing waste water treatment systems, check- neers (who have a frequent-traveler status), ing as well as measuring the quality of wa- academics and students (who are the parts ter and fish stocks in the Vuoksi River have of the inter-government or inter-university been launched. Likewise, various educational agreements), sportsmen and culture-related projects have been coined and there have been persons (artists, musicians, etc.). efforts to improve the tourism infrastructure It may be noted, however, that the system and bolster the competence of the municipal has in the case of the Imatra-Svetogorsk governments. The international arts festival border been flexible enough to allow peo- ‘Vuoksa’, pointing to efforts of creating joint ple commuting frequently because of work lived space, is held annually in Imatra (May) across the border. Multiple visas for a year

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are easily available. There is also flexibility in mon endeavours of creating common space the sense that in the context of the Summer between the two towns. Festivals organized in 2008, some 300 visas An additional factor that that has stimulat- were available for free to the inhabitants of ed the local cross-border cooperation consists Imatra wanting to use the opportunity to visit of the municipal independence of Svetogorsk Svetogorsk. Yet it would signal considerable with the city being separated from the district progress in unity if the twin-city arrangement of Vyborg in 1996. Svetogorsk consequently could, as such, become conducive for a more gained its own administrative competence, flexible visa regime allowing also for more in- this then also entailing tax revenues needed tensive people-to-people contacts to develop. to carry out projects in the context of cross- It may be noted in this context, as to border cooperation. border-crossing, that Svetogorsk is located In general, Imatra and Svetogorsk have within the confines of a security-related bor- used twinning as an umbrella concept in der-zone. This imposes, at least in principle, their cooperation and coming together. The nationally related restrictions on the ability emphasis has, however, changed over time of cities to coalescence across the border. in having covered activities and concerns Yet it seems that such a location has not im- forming the focal areas of cooperation at pacted cooperation between Imatra and Sve- each particular point in time. The concept of togorsk in any significant manner. It appears twin cities has not only provided the partici- that nobody from the Finnish side has been pants with a specific brand; it has also been compelled to ask for a permission to visit the conducive to developing trust in the part- area, nor has anybody been sanctioned for ners of cooperation and grounding it more not having acquired such a permission (Han- generally in the consciousness and think- nula & Hämäläinen-Abdessamad, 2008: 21). ing among the inhabitants of the two cit- Invitations from the Svetogorsk city authori- ies. Over time increased emphasis has been ties have in general stood out a valid reason placed on this latter aspect of lived space. for the respective authorities to grant a visa This has been needed, taking into account without any other authority interfering. that the culture permeating the border-area Significantly, the EU has not constituted has in the post-war years been premised the only source of funding the local CBC on strict nationness and has consequently projects. Some Finnish funds have been avail- favoured isolation as well as detachment able as well. For instance, the monitoring of rather than cooperation and togetherness. air quality in Svetogorsk has been voluntarily Efforts of generating trust have therefore linked to the system regulated by Finnish law. constituted a very necessary aspect of twin- The initiative for this arrangement originated ning. Hence various seminars, festivities and with contacts between the Environmental exhibitions or other forms of togetherness Agency of Imatra and the Health Adminis- should not just be judged on the basis of tration in Svetogorsk. The monitoring service their immediate and concrete results. They was purchased by the Svetogorsk Mill from should also be seen as sites conducive to the the municipality of Imatra. It appears that emergence knowledge about the other side along with teacher exchange programs, the air and thereby perhaps conducive to the crea- monitoring system ranked among the most tion of shared space based on feelings of institutionalised cross-border links and com- togetherness.

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The key decision-making body of twin- sues related to industrial development, social ning has consisted of a steering group with security and education from municipalities up key members of respective administrations to the regional level. Moreover, the new Rus- of the two towns onboard. In addition to the sian law on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) local input, the institutional setup includes has downplayed the municipal competences a commission with representatives of vari- and transferred them largely back to the re- ous ministries in Finland and Russia taking gional and federal levels thereby impeding part (although in practice the latter body has the competence of local actors such as cities. yielded very little and has in reality been aban- Currently municipalities have the authority to doned). As to the organizational structures, coin and operate in areas up to three hectares it may also be noted that the Russo-Finnish and hence it appears that their competence centres for small and medium size enterprises in creating and catering for the appearance (SME) support operations exist both in Im- of space straddling divisive borders has been atra and Svetogorsk. seriously curtailed leaving the idea of a joint Regarding the issue of common projects, industrial park basically in the sphere of vi- the idea of a creation of the Russian-Finnish sions and representations of space. Key East Industrial Park (KEIP) in the neu- This is, however, to some extent contrast- tral zone in the border-area was reanimated in ed by the joint twin city strategy covering the 1999. It appears that also personalities count, years 2007-2013. The strategy informs that as the first deputy mayor of Svetogorsk, K. “the first companies have started their op- Patraev, is very much seen as having been erations in the park” (consisting of a Russian the driving force behind this truly border- company in the field of road-construction) transcending initiative. An area spanning and that a larger business park project has 136 hectars was designed for the project and been launched. In order to bolster entrepre- Russian and Finnish experts prepared a draft neurship, the plans also include items such as intergovernmental agreement on the KEIP. establishing a common labour register. The model applied in this context drew upon There has in general, within a decade of the Russian-Korean special economic zone riding on the concept of twin cities, been (SEZ) in Nakhodka, i.e. Russian experiences some development towards the creation of related to another border area. Potential in- common space to be detected, although the vestors were to gain tax and customs exemp- case of Imatra-Svetogorsk is still far from tions and a visa-free regime was proposed connoting the formation of an integrated and also a single KEIP management system and bicultural community, one straddling the was suggested. In 2003, a tender for devel- previously divisive border and thereby form- opment of the park was announced and the ing an integrated border region. The concept Finnish investment company Skanska stood of an unifying and a border-dismissing twin out as the prospective winner. city has been difficult to digest for the part However, economic development in Russia of Svetogorsk in the first place, as indicated at large and locally in Svetogorsk undermined among other things by that they tend to use the project (Eskelinen, 2008). It may also be the concept of city twins (dvojnoj gorod) with noted that the passing of two new Russian this latter concept preserving the plurality of laws in 2006 changed the circumstances. The the two cities rather than reducing the two new law on local government transferred is- entities involved into a singularity (Kaisto &

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Nartova, 2008: 10). It may also be noted that a considerable amount of cooperation already the economic conditions have rarely favoured exists linking the two cities on a broad variety the emergence of common cross-border of planes. It appears, though, that so far only space. As claimed by Heikki Eskelinen (2008), a minority of the inhabitants carry a cross- rather the opposite has been true. In addition, border identity. Identification under the label the historical legacies, socio-economic dispar- of a twin city seems to have become more ities and strong emphasis on nationness have frequent in Svetogorsk than in Imatra (Kaisto been difficult to circumvent and overcome. and Nartova, 2008: 65). In other words, the Europeanness has in the case of Imatra- preparedness to extend the concept of the Svetogorsk contributed to the emergence of city across the border as lived space appears unity in terms of the availability of financing to meet fewer obstacles on the side of Sve- of common projects but it has also hampered togorsk than Imatra due to the cultural re- contacts due to the requirements of a rather sources at play, and in this sense the depar- strict and divisive border regime. tures applied remain unbalanced. It may, in general, be noted that the con- It might, however, also be that the inter- tacts between the inhabitants of the two bor- linked area is extended to cover not just the der towns have remained limited. This is so twins but a broader sphere of actors consist- above all due to the lack of a broadly unifying of several cities and other locations. The ing language. Russian or Finnish do not seem recent revision in 2007 of the Northern Di- to function very well as a joint language, and mension Initiative and the efforts to utilise the also the competence in English leaves much options opening up on regional level seem to to hope for. Eskelinen and Kotilainen (2005: testify to this. With the NDI increasingly turn- 40) also point to the existence of “prejudices ing into a concrete frame of cooperation, also and a nationally-minded sense of otherness”. other cities located in the same border region This, of course, hampers the imagining and together with Imatra and Svetogorsk have grounding of the two cities as a common been tempted to pool their resources under space. Hannula and Hämäläinen-Abdessamad the umbrella of the NDI. This might then (2008: 8) note for their part that “the efforts imply that the twin city consisting of Imatra of unifying two cities with rather different and Svetogorsk is on its way of becoming an cultures, languages and heritages is unavoid- integral part of a broader constellation called able conducive to fears and suspicions” (see the Northern Dimension of Cross Border also Jukarainen, 2000). The heritage includes, Cities, a coalescing amounting to a urban area they argue, that the border is still often ex- of some 250.000 inhabitants with other cities perienced as a closed one, and this goes (on such as Vyborg, Lappeenranta and Primorsk the Finnish side) particularly for those with participating. One might expect that the con- a Karelian background and the part of the cept and the twin city pattern do not disap- Finnish population having their roots in the pear due to such a turn and broadening, albeit areas ceded to the Soviet Union in the after- they change in being attached to a broader math of the war. For these people the border regional ‘corridor’ of ‘border cities’ reaching tends to remain a rather contested one (see across the border. also Joenniemi, 1998). It appears more generally that the overall Yet, and these obstacles notwithstanding, setting impacting the city-pair of Imatra-Sve- researchers have also pointed out that in fact togorsk has turned increasingly conducive

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to cooperation but it has also become more factories and workshops related to this func- competitive and demanding. Twinning turns, tion were established (Kant, 1932). within such a context, perhaps less distinct as Estonia and Latvia both gained indepen- an identity and a form of cooperation but at dence in 1918, although they were unable to the same time it remains one of the crucial agree upon a joint border and in this context avenues available and may actually turn out the belongingness of the city. The internation- to be a quite useful departure and experience al arbitrage, headed by the British envoy S. G. in the context of relating to the emergence Talents, conclusively established the border of a broader commonality across the Finn- between Estonia and Latvia. In the case of ish-Russian border. what was now comprehended as Valga-Valka, the border was drawn by staking out a line along a stream running through the city with VALGA-VALKA: DIVIDED BY ethnicity as the main criteria for dividing the NATIONNESS previously rather unified city. Estonia got the railway station (a junction on the Tallinn-Riga The Estonian town of Valga (situated in South and Pskov-Riga railway lines) and the main Estonia; 15.300 inhabitants) and the Latvian part of the commercial district whereas a mi- one of Valka (located in North-Latvia; 7.100 nor part of the inner city and a main part of inhabitants) joined the chain of twin cities in the suburbs were handed over to Latvia (Lun- April 2005 through an agreement to launch a dén and Zalamans, 1998). project called “Valga-Valka: One City – Two The two towns remained divided with Es- States”. The word ‘joining’ is justified in this tonianness and Latvianness imposing and up- context also because their cooperation with keeping the bordering for two decades until Tornio-Haparanda contributed to the usage the Second World War with Germany taking and spreading of a twin city formula. There over, for this then to be substituted by So- are, in this sense, signs of a particular pattern viet annexation in 1945. The previous barri- of the concept’s Europeanisation to be de- ers were taken down as part of Sovietization, tected in the case of Valga-Valka. although a variety of ethnical and cultural di- As such, the two cities have a long history viding lines prevailed. The only concrete bor- of togetherness and connectedness. They left der remaining was administrative in character a mark in the historical records already in 1286 with the two cities belonging to different So- with the appearance of the German-sound- viet republics (i.e. the Estonian and Latvian ing name of Walk. The Polish rule amounted ones). Thus, in reality the two parts were again to city rights being achieved in 1584, for this merged with the city functioning as a coher- then to be followed in 1626 by the city be- ent space with much interaction and move- coming part of Estonia during Swedish rule. ment across the previous divides. Particularly Some 100 years later it became integrated into the new Slavic population, consisting mainly the Russian Empire. Throughout this part of of ethnic Russians, disregarded and pushed its history the city, while carrying the name aside the various delimitations. Valga-Valka Walk, was for the most part united and inhab- was in their view first and foremost a Soviet ited by both Estonians and Latvians. During town, and one furnished with a unified ad- the last decades of the 19th century, it became ministration, joint educational facilities, com- an important railway-knot, and a number of mon healthcare and a system of transport.

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With the Soviet withdrawal and both Es- for cooperation between the two towns dur- tonia and Latvia subsequently regaining in- ing the first years of separation. There was lit- dependence in 1991, the largely unified en- tle feeling of belonging together and the spa- tity was once again divided by Estonianness tial strategy pursued remained a passive one and Latvianness into two separate towns. keeping previous borders in place. As noted The dividing line was re-installed, difference by Dennis Zalamans (2008), no talks aspiring fenced outside a nationally premised border for an active and more cooperative to be en- and the cities were, much to their own sur- acted were allowed. The local authorities were prise, obliged to build up their respective and by and large content with their posture as a separate administrations. In this context, as ‘border city’ and did not view cross-border part of nation-building and a delimitation of cooperation as belonging to their sphere of the Estonian and Latvian nation-states, also competences. Instead they saw it as part of a considerable number of restrictions to the ‘foreign’ policy belonging to the prerogatives free movement across the border were intro- of the state authorities or the EU and also the duced. The restoration of the national border populations at large seem to have turned away of the two now independent states made it from each other rather than aspired for a re- difficult and quite complicated – with cus- production of the previous and lost unity. toms, border-guards, passports and various In this latter regard, as observed by Dennis forms of paperwork in place – for people and Zalamans (2008: 5): “Neither Estonians or goods to cross the frontier. Political space Latvians claim that they have any or little rea- was comprehended and scaled above all in son to cross the border. If they wish, they can state-related terms. The concept of balticness do so as often as they like after showing their could have been conducive to the straddling passport”. The Russian population or the of the border but it turned out to be far too ‘Aliens’, i.e. people without citizenship (some weak for it to function as a unifying departure. 35 per cent of the population in Valga, while Both cities thus turned, owing to appearance the respective figure is 25 per cent in the case of two nationalizing states and the lack of a of Valka), had to apply for a visa. Moreover, unifying perspective, into peripheries in their their passports were stamped each time they own countries. As noted by Thomas Lundén crossed the border so for them the obstacles (2007: 28) both of them have had problems of border-crossing were more tangible. with the quality of drinking water and both This passive acceptance of the dividing recently constructed their own sewage-treat- line – noticeable particularly among the Es- ment plants. “The size of each plant is big tonian and Latvian parts of the inhabitants enough to serve both towns”, he remarks – changed only gradually towards the mid- somewhat critically. It is to be noted that par- 1990s. Contacts were then intensified, a co- ticularly Valka as a kind suburban part of Val- operation agreement was signed and contacts ga suffered economically from the changes emerged particularly in the context of an among other reasons because the industry of INTERREG-financed project aiming at de- the town lost its previous markets. Hence the veloping cross-border activities and coopera- city fell into depression. tion. With the local perspective of being a cities Notably, Provincia Bothieniensis, with the now strictly subordinated to their respective backing of Tornio and Haparanda, contrib- states, there was scant if any space available uted to the coining and conduct of the proj-

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ect. It might thus be argued that the twin city depicted as a unifying factor for example in model landed and was rooted in Valga-Valka the sense that twinning has provided the as a result of export/import and special ex- ground for applying for some EU-related ternal concerns caused by their stagnation grants. Moreover, Europeanness had quite and peripherality. It was not, in the first in- concrete and drastic effects towards the end stance, premised on any local production of of 2007 with both Estonia and Latvia finally symbolic space. In any case, the bringing over joining Schengen. Their inclusion implied of the idea and concept of twinning seems that all the three border crossings separating to have facilitated the aspirations of the lo- Valga-Valka were taken down 21st of Decem- cal authorities as well as the populations at ber with a small display of fireworks and the large to downgrade the impact of the bor- playing the European anthem, Beethoven’s der in order for more contiguous space to be An Ode to Joy. The Presidents of Estonia and created. They have been encouraged to revise Latvia were both present, delivered speeches their views on urban difference and re-con- and warmly supported further cooperation ceptualise their cities in terms of increased between the two cities. local communality as expressed through the The change in the character of the border officially accepted unitary logo “one city, two into an increasingly unifying one implies that countries”, one developed jointly in 2005 to in principle Valga-Valka has more recently express their particularity and commonality. become comparable to the case of Tornio- Subsequently, relatively strong cross-bor- Haparanda. This is so as state-formation has der networks have developed in areas such as declined in importance as a core constitutive spatial planning, tourism, education, health- departure, although it remains there in an care, culture and sports. Economic coop- administrative sense. Yet, and the increas- eration has, however, evolved rather slowly ingly favourable conditions notwithstanding, owing to problems related to border-cross- the interest in pushing for the emergence of ing. Yet the aim has increasingly become one added commonality and the determination of contributing to economic development to create an inter-linked borderland appears and raising the visibility and competitiveness thus far to be rather modest. This goes for of Valga-Valka as a common endeavour. A the political decision-makers as well as the joint secretariat has emerged and a cross-bor- inhabitants at large. In fact, the inhabitants der bus line has been established as a rather appear to be somewhat bewildered about concrete sign of the formation of common that there is no more a border to be repro- space. duced in their daily practices of lived space. Estonia’s and Latvia’s membership in the As such, there are no overt hostilities or in- European Union in 2004 did not immediately grained negative feelings to be detected but change things as both countries still remained also the incentives for togetherness and the outside Schengen. The impact was, however, will to move towards a stronger communality there in the sense that increasingly the local seem largely to be lacking. The border, once was connected to Europeanness, and this clearly visible and constantly reproduced, ap- change in perspective and scale reduced, as pears to have provided ground for an orderly such, the divisive effects of the border. The conduct of affairs and functioned as an an- border has in the new context been increas- choring point providing stability. Moreover, ingly conceptualised as a resource. It has been culture and language seem to divide rather

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than unite as Estonian and Latvian are quite then providing the ground for the usage of different as languages, and mostly the joint the concept of a ‘twin city’. A rather broad language employed consists of Russian with repertoire of other representations remain the older and English in case of the younger available as well but it seems that there ex- generation (Zalamans, 2008). ists increased space and interest in employing In any case, city twinning stands potentially precisely that conceptual departure, and to do to gain from the demise of the border and so despite the various quite demanding and there might consequently be increased empha- challenging connotations attached to the one sis on local departures connected – as to the of ‘twinning’. policies of scale – to Europeanness. Whether Equally, the establishment and growth of this is the way developments unfold is still to the City Twin Association seems similarly to be seen. Notably, some obstacles clearly ap- testify to the popularity and increasingly he- pear to remain as indicated for example by gemonic nature of ‘twinning’ and ‘twin cities’ a statement of Valka’s Mayor Unda Ozolina: in comparison to a variety of other concep- “It’s easier to remove barriers at our borders tual options. The concept of ‘twins’ seems to than to remove barriers in our minds” (The have developed into a departure employed in Earth Times, 12.12.2007). But these doubts a rather customary fashion: Twinning is what notwithstanding, the concept of the city now neighbouring cities separated by a state-bor- increasingly includes previous strangers. They der should do. The coverage of the repre- have to be met without the usual protective sentation includes even some quite disparate distance provided by a divisive border of a pairs and does so without the cities engaged ‘border town’. This is so as Europeanisation in border-crossing cooperation aspiring for as a new mode of scaling finally does away far-reaching unity. The conceptual departure with most of the restrictions pertaining to is employed despite of that more often than the border opening the door for different not there are few reasons to speak of ‘twins’ and more unifying representations. In this in any strict sense of the word. vein, the symbolic space of “one city and two In fact, the habit could be condemned as a countries” has already been established and fixation as it does not seem to hold if viewed now the question is to what extent the two against the background of empirical facts. adjacent urban configurations are willing and Interestingly, Daniel Arreola (1996) is highly able to make use of the options opening up in critical regarding the proliferation of the con- the pursuance of concrete city-policies. cept in the case of city-pairs located across the US-Mexican border. He talks about a “fix idée’ and a “the blanket extension of imag- CONCLUDING REMARKS es” in going against the various representations of cities coming together as something There appears to be, in all the four cases stimulating, liberating and pleasurable (cf. probed, elements of twinning present in the Van Houtum and Ernste, 2001: 102). The cit- sense that the city-pairs present in Northern ies coming together do not just stand for a Europe do not just aim for bridging and in- natural extension of the citiness embedded in tensified cooperation as ‘border cities’. There each city from the very start and the images is also the aim of creating – in varying de- coined in the context of twinning amount in grees – communality and joint space, this his reading to myths and exaggeration. Such

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approaches and conceptual departures pre- that has previously kept them apart. The con- vent, he contends, a “richer understanding of stitutive stories are, in most cases, about the cities in the region”. In other words, twinning Europe of integration and utilisation of the is problematic in idealising similitude and in options opening up. Europe’s current being leaving scant space for variations and differ- with cross-border cooperation high on the ence. It easily entails, in the case of cities be- agenda invites and allows them – as to the ing quite unequal, that pressure is levelled on symbolism coined and the policies of scale the weaker partner to become similar to the pursued – to reduce and do away with divisive stronger one. Twinning does thus not mere- impact of borders. In other words, stories ly represent an overstatement as it can also pertaining to Europe and European integra- function as a kind of straight-jacket. On the tion enable and invite them to see themselves basis of his more empirical examination he differently with previously excluded options concludes that the twin assertion does not and unthinkable visions coming to the fore. hold in almost all instances studied and that By actively joining in and by applying a differ- “coupled settlements are not twins”. ent scaling, they endeavour at developing into Similar conclusions are also on offer in the cases in-between thereby reducing the divi- case of Northern Europe, although in some sive impact of national borders, and thus also cases the concept of twinning has much speak- the boundedness of their respective states. ing for it. This is so particularly in the case of Through the communality created and the Tornio-Haparanda. It is also to be noted that transgression initiated, borders are provided there is a less systematic pattern present in with new meaning and signiﬁcation. In some Northern Europe than along the US-Mexico cases twinning occurs across already estab- border with twinning usually implying in the lished borders (Imatra-Svetogorsk and Tor- latter case that an American understanding nio-Haparanda) and in others the borders to of cities and political space more generally is be straddled are quite recent in origin (Narva- being imposed on the Mexican partners. Yet Ivangorod and Valga-Valka). Sometimes the the use of more ﬂexible concepts – such as initiative rests with national authorities (as the one of ‘connected cities’ or ‘partnership is the case particularly with the twin city of cities’ – might be warranted also in the case Kirkenes-Nikel now in the making), although of Northern Europe. It is in any case quite mostly it has come from the respective cit- unsurprising against this background that in ies themselves. In any case, local, national as particular the Russian cities part of twinning well as EU-related borders are impacted by in Northern Europe tend to search for and the moves of twinning. Above all, the process operate with conceptualisations that are less entailing the re-imagining borders as barriers demanding and not premised on assumptions to success and therefore something to be dis- of plain similitude. missed is performative in character. It invites There is, of course, no denying that also by activating the approaches to borders for for the part of Northern Europe a certain different and much more cooperative poli- model or form of sociation is at play as they cies to be pursued, although the processes set are invited to form pairs and thereby become into motion do neither proceed automatically, increasing international and cosmopolitan. In nor remain void of frictions. Rather to the being neighbours to each other, they are asked contrary, the efforts of re-imagining political to cooperate and unite across the state border space in terms of twinning across national

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borders have also generated a considerable and the local professional competence to en- of resistance on various levels and in differ- gage themselves across borders has clearly in- ent forms. Obviously, considerable efforts are creased. The previous idealism of the Cold needed for common space really to emerge as War era has declined whereas pragmatism and testified by most of the cases and city-pairs individualism appear to have grown in impact explored here. as to the underlying motivations. Local actors At large, national borders have proved to such as cities have gained a role of their own be more persistent than has been sometimes in the context of transgressing national bor- believed or hoped. Establishing free, open ders, with twin cities as one aspects of such a and fluid space trough twinning has been broader pattern. something of an uphill struggle in all the It is to be observed that some of the cit- four cases explored. The aim of pooling re- ies part of such a category have succeeded sources to bolster competitiveness sounds at- in creating considerable dynamics by joining tractive both in functional and administrative forces and using their location at a state bor- terms but borders and bordering are deeply der as an asset, although conflictual histories, ingrained both in time and space. They are problematic legacies, prevailing asymmetries, thus not easy to alter and re-conceptualise. It different potentials and divergent interests may further be noted that in the case of both as well as tensions within a broader setting Ivangorod and Svetogorsk national economic of relations have in other cases made it dif- developments looked gloomy during the end- ficult and time-consuming to exploit the op- 1980s and first part of the 1990s providing portunities offered by increasingly permeable incentives to search for alternative options borders. Imatra-Svetogorsk is clearly a case in of development across the border. However, point but also Narva-Ivangorod as well Valga- over the recent years the setting has changed Valka could be slotted in a similar category. with the domestic scenery currently looking As noted, also three Russian cities (with much more dynamic and competitive in re- Nikel being a newcomer included in this con- gard to the immediate exterior. It has over the stellation) in northern Europe have joined recent years become much more questionable the pattern in order to use the concept of city particularly in the city-pair of Narva-Ivan- twins as a niche in their endeavours of devel- gorod whether the opening up is the only opment. There has been no decisive obstacle option available. Conversely, twinning has in for joining in, although the experiences gained some sense also turned into an increasingly seem to point to that there are considerable interesting idea if seen from the perspective hurdles to overcome in order for cooperation of Narva, Imatra or Kirkenes as the Russian really to yield tangible and mutually satisfac- partners are not merely ‘poor cousins’ to be tory results. However, the model of twinning assisted and helped without the eastern part- has been established and neither Ivangorod ners having themselves anything to put on the nor Svetogorsk have shown signs of be- table. ing overly critical of the experiences gained. In fact, cooperation across state borders, They show no signs of wanting to drop out. including the borders between Russia and the On the contrary, the various designs and EU, has over the years developed into a well- long-term plans put forward seem to point to established practice. Leaderships have found that an increasing amount of rather practical it worthwhile to invest in such endeavours issues are being tackled and that the parties

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have been encouraged increasingly to think ever, to be noted that the concept favoured in about themselves as being closely connect- the Russian context has some interesting and ed. It also appears that also societies at large telling features of its own as city twinning have gradually been drawn into the pattern tends to point to separate entities basically of cooperation which constitutes, as such, a similar to each other rather than to any single crucial requirement in order for success to be and uniform entity. Those joining in are seen acquired in the long run. as remaining distinct entities but now void of Overall, the experiences gained in North- their previous otherness. It is then, accord- ern Europe of twinning can be assessed as ing to departures applied, precisely this lack being positive. The introduction of the con- of threatening difference that provides the cept has enabled several cities to use their ground for engaging in cross-border cooper- location at contiguous borders in order to ation. Scale is jumped above all by downgrad- opt for new forms of being and acting. The ing the divisive impact of national borders providing of a new and broader twist to the rather than explicitly endeavouring at a redef- concept of the city and reproducing it in a inition of what being a city is basically about trans-border context constitutes one specific and how it is bordered. Whereas the concept aspect of a changing and an increasingly in- of a twin city points to otherness and differ- tegrated political landscape. The coalescing ence being contained, encountered and dealt of cities adds, in a form of its own, to the with as part of a single entity, city twinning strengthening of communality, mutual trust appears to downgrade the existence of differ- and cooperation in the region and provides ence on the level of cities from the very start border-related cities as relative small entities allowing for an activation to take place in the with the option of impacting a broader set- approach to statist borders with far-reaching ting. Twinning adds, in view of the more re- cooperation as consequence. cent experiences, an interesting notion to the It may hence be argued that twinning also understanding of ‘Europe’, and it does so as remains something of a conceptual battle- one way of extending EU-related European- field. It is loaded with different interpreta- ness beyond the borders of the EU. It also tions as the comprehensions underpinning testifies, in a broader perspective, to the po- the unity to be found for the part of Tornio- tential inherent in the concept of city-ness as Haparanda – with strong emphasis on uni- particularly prone to cooperation transcend- fication, commonality, like-mindedness and ing statist borders. feeling of belonging together – are not pres- Twinning also seems, in the latter context, ent to a similar degree in the cases of Ima- to facilitate and open up avenues for Russia tra-Svetogorsk or Narva-Ivangorod. Notably, and Russian entities to take part and contrib- also Valka-Valga stands – despite the slogan ute to these processes. There have obviously of ‘one city, two nations’ – basically for in- been ups and downs as to the underlying mo- tensified cooperation between separate enti- tivation of plugging in. Similarly, the degree ties rather than constituting a twin city. The of support and willingness to grant the au- priority given to state-belonging and nation- tonomy required for twinning to work seems ness prevents, it appears, any implementation to have varied, although it may also be noted of concepts such as an ‘EuroCity’ or, for that that the very concept of city twins has over matter, the establishment of a firm and far- time gained considerable legitimacy. It is, how- reaching joint core that straddles the essence

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of the participants as two distinct entities. There is adjacency as to location, a considerable amount of cooperation but not enough mental proximity for real unity to appear. This is then also to say that conceptualisations of a twin city, one postulating far-reaching unity and like-mindedness, remain quite challenging also for the cities involved. They do so among other reasons as the conceptualisations add new aspects and dimensions to what cities basically are about and how they are lived. Yet it may be concluded that the city-pairs and the cities involved seem to be relatively well equipped, due to their inherent qualities, to make use of the changing nature of state borders in Northern Europe. The ensuing encounters with previous otherness have been turned into a resource, and one may hence on good ground assume that twinning – or far-reaching togetherness and companionship under some other but related label – is there to stay. It is perhaps still in its infancy and often oriented towards the short rather than the long term perspective but will probably get more established and stronger over time thus also calling for added theoretical insight as well as further empirical enquiry.

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