Twin Cities: Territorial and Relational Geographies of ‘Worldly’ Manchester

Abstract

This paper contributes to recent interest in city twinning by urban theorists. It begins with a review of writing from across the social sciences which describes the institutional context and content of twinning programmes, as well as work which theorises how care and hospitality are key elements of twinning practices. Ethnographic research is then presented from the City of Manchester (UK) in order to consider the ways in which twinning is constituted through circuits, networks and webs of co-operation and competition involved in the transfer of policy and knowledge which can be strategic, uneven and at times ambivalent. In doing so, it is argued that the conflicts, tensions and contradictions bound up with twinning have much to offer theoretical and empirical understanding of territorial and relational urban politics. The paper concludes with theoretical, methodological and policy relevant insights.