Journeys to European Twin Cities
June and July 2013 | Simulation Game in Twin Cities of the City Twin Association
Divided cities on Europe’s borders are a special room, a laboratory of the European integration. Here one can visit, how close or far the European societies are to each other. In the past 20 years, much has happened and many City Twins are getting closer again. But in a few of them the distance between the two halves of the city has grown again. A journey through several border towns therefore gives a good insight into the particular opportunities and challenges facing the City Twins, and thus also in Europe’s future.
25 young people from several European countries have visited five twin cities in the form of a experimental game. They were members of a fictional selection committee of the European Parliament and have decided upon according the award of European Capital of Culture Twin City 2020 to one of the visited twin cities. They met with representatives of cultural, administrative, civil society and economic surveys and residents to get information about the quality and intensity of cross-border cooperation.
Both trips have been documented by the group, which also contains several “members of the press”. The documentation consists of pictures, film and text.
Simulation games in general and the “European selection committee” in particular have been implemented and improved for many years on the workshop program of historical and political education at the Institute for Applied History.
First trip of the committee: 24.-30.06.2013
Valga/Valka (Latvia/Estonia) – Narva/Ivangorod (Estonia/Russia) – Svetlogorsk/Imatra (Russia/Finland)
Second trip of the committee: 8.-11.07.2013
Cieszyn/Česky Těšin (Poland/Czech Rep.) – Zgorzelec/Görlitz (Poland/Germany) – Gubin/Guben (Poland/Germany)
Closing event: Presentation and Evaluation 12.-14.07.2013
Frankfurt (Oder)/Słubice (Germany/Poland)
Coordinator
Erzsébet Lajos
The project has been funded by the European Union and Funds of the Land Brandenburg.
