An "active promotion of the European ideal"? References to Europe in British-German town twinning.

“积极促进欧洲理想”？

• 批准号: 443275265
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Ute Schneider
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/443275265?language=en
• 关键词: active; promotion; European; ideal; References

By focussing on selected town twinning links between Great Britain and West Germany, this research project examines which role “Europe” played in these links, which characteristically consisted of a wide array of economic, diplomatic, political and cultural processes and demands. By doing so, the project aims to contribute to historiographical research into the “lived Europe”, thus addressing a research gap in European contemporary history, which has so far largely focussed on the European institutions and thus economic and political processes.With particular focus on the twinning links Kiel-Coventry and Frankfurt-Birmingham, the project examines (1) when and why these connections were framed as “European”, (2) which definition(s) of Europe dominated and (3) how cities contributed to these shifting definitions of Europe. Among other things, the Europe Prize, established by the Council of Europe in 1955, will be used as a probe to tackle these questions. Based on the key assumption that cities possess an intrinsic logic, this project examines how individual twinning links were formed and expanded upon through negotiation processes between the local, regional, national and international level. To highlight the foreign-policy dimension of town twinning, the project will also include the British cities’ twinning links with East Germany: while the GDR tried to use town twinning as a quasi-diplomatic tool, the links – and expectations connected with them – proved challenging in return.

通过关注英国和西德之间选定的城镇结对联系，本研究项目考察了“欧洲”在这些联系中所起的作用，这些联系的特点是由一系列广泛的经济、外交、政治和文化进程和需求组成。通过这样做，该项目旨在为“活生生的欧洲”的史学研究做出贡献，从而解决欧洲当代史上的研究空白，迄今为止，欧洲当代史的研究主要集中在欧洲机构以及经济和政治进程上。该项目特别关注基尔-考文垂和法兰克福-伯明翰的孪生联系，研究了(1)何时以及为什么这些联系被框定为“欧洲”，(2)哪些欧洲定义占主导地位，(3)城市如何促成这些欧洲定义的变化。欧洲委员会（Council of Europe）于1955年设立的欧洲奖（european Prize）将作为解决这些问题的一个探针。基于城市具有内在逻辑的关键假设，该项目研究了如何通过地方、区域、国家和国际层面的谈判过程形成和扩展个别的孪生联系。为了突出城镇结对的外交政策维度，该项目还将包括英国城市与东德的结对联系：虽然民主德国试图将城镇结对作为一种准外交工具，但这种联系——以及与之相关的期望——被证明是具有挑战性的。