Town twinning can be seen as the first activity to involve municipal institutions as such in wide-ranging and long-term international action. Twinning fits Eric Hobsbawm's definition of an ‘invented tradition’. The French federalists played a decisive part in this process of invention, bringing European municipalities together in order to ensure an eventual European political union. Before long, however, the so-called bilingualist movement also turned to twinning as a way to further a universal mutual understanding that transcended the East–West divide. This resulted in a big clash between the French twinning organisations. Thus, the invention of town twinning needs to be studied alongside the dynamic political tensions that emerged on the French political scene during the Cold War
L'expertise en matière de gestion urbaine n'est pas un phénomène nouveau. Des réseaux internationaux se sont structurés dès la fin du XIXe siècle afin de capitaliser des savoir-faire utiles à des villes européennes en expansion. Avec la construction européenne, les enjeux ont changé : le thème l'internationalisation des villes dans un contexte de compétition territoriale supplante l'enjeu de capitalisation des préceptes de bonne gestion urbaine. Les figures sociales et professionnelles de l'expertise s'en trouvent modifiées. L'expert le plus en vue est désormais celui qui diffuse les modèles de villes ayant réussi leur internationalisation. Cependant, il ne faut pas surestimer la capacité de cette expertise à homogénéiser de manière radicale les stratégies et modes de gestion urbains. L'enjeu majeur pour les villes est bien désormais de réussir leurs stratégies de spécialisation. Au travers des cas de trois villes d'Europe du Sud, on voit que la définition de ces spécialisations s'opère dans le cadre de mobilisations locales. Ces mobilisations font émerger une expertise collective des parcours d'internationalisation et favorisent une certaine autonomisation des modes de gouvernance urbaine.
International audienceThe antiAtlas of Borders is an experimentation at the crossroads of research, art and practice. It was launched in 2011 at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies (Aix Marseille University), and has been co-produced by the Higher School of Art (Aix en Provence), PACTE laboratory (University of Grenoble-CNRS), Isabelle Arvers and La compagnie. Since then, it has gathered researchers (social and hard scientists), artists (web artists, tactical geographers, hackers, filmmakers, etc.) and professionals (customs, industry, military, etc.). The encounter of people coming from these different fields of knowledge and practice aims to create a radical shift of perspective in the way we apprehend both 21 st century borders and the boundaries separating fields of knowledge, art and practice
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