Description
Much influenced by the work of ethnographers and feminist academics, the concept of the ‘everyday’ has recently re-emerged as an important lens through which to envision the fields of global politics and international political economy. In this paper, I situate twinning as an example of everyday international relations that problematizes mainstream definitions of ‘international friendship’ and magnifies a whole range of translocal struggles that cut against the grain of prevailing popular discourses and national policy directives. In particular, it highlights three examples of twinning practice, past and present, that have challenged the status quo: twinnings established in opposition to the Contra War in Nicaragua; twinning as an act of recognition for communities in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, and lastly twinning as a vehicle for the recovery and repatriation of sacred artefacts to postcolonial Kenya. Through these examples, it argues for an alternative conceptualization of international friendship: one that pushes beyond the methodological nationalism and ontological rigidity of dominant approaches.
