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International Sister-Cities: Bridging the Global-Local Divide

Rolf D. Cremer

ANN DUPUIS [*]

ABSTRACT. With the demise of the sharp urban-rural divide as a framework for urban analyses, debates have arisen regarding the utility of the city as a theoretically significant construct. Recently however, the growing emphasis on globalization has brought the analysis of global cities into sharp focus. The countervailing trend emphasizes the significance of "the local." International sister-cities provide a site of analysis which illustrates the global-local interface and yet delves deeper. Initially conceived as a post-war means of developing friendships and cultural ties, sister-cities were based on similarities such as name or economic function. More recently, greater recognition has been given to the economic foundations and benefits of these connections. Providing an extension to an integrated approach to the study of sister-cities based on the multifold relationship between culture and commerce, this paper adds a further dimension by focusing on simultaneously operating multi-level entrepreneurial part nerships necessary to sustain active sister-city relationships. Drawing on New Zealand examples of twinning arrangements, it is demonstrated that the emergence and development of embedded partnership ties is vital to deriving sustainable economic and social benefits. While the global outreach of the sister-cities phenomenon appears to transcend the geographic confines of cities, strong locality considerations and local activism nevertheless predominate. A novel feature of this paper is the conceptualization of a hybrid form of entrepreneurialism, "municipal-community entrepreneurship," which is argued as a valuable facilitator of the economic and social vibrancy of cities.

Introduction

WITH THE DEMISE OF THE URBAN-RURAL DIVIDE as a framework for urban analyses, debates arose regarding the utility of the city as a theoretically significant category of analysis (Castells 1977, 1978, 1983; Saunders 1986). Of late however, analyses of the city and the urban condition have emerged with renewed vigor (Dear 2000; Zukin 1995). A particular current focus has been one on the global processes that that have shaped the role of such major global cities as London, Tokyo and New York in a new global economy (Sassen 1996). A countervailing trend has been one that focuses on the significance of the local, tracing "urban diversity to internal force and the tactics used by local actors" (Fainstein 1996, p. 170). International sister-cities, the topic of this paper, illustrate the global-local interface. Yet the intricate workings of each sister-city relationship belie the superficiality of a simple, global-local divide. In fact, one purpose of this paper is to show through the sister-city example that the glo bal-local dichotomy is a nebulous one requiring in-depth analysis of contextual uniqueness.

An examination of sister-cities must begin with the politics of locality and a recognition of the individualized operations of specific cities, then move on to an examination of how these particularities are used as a basis for forging city to city links across the globe. Specific to the phenomenon of sister-cities is that these links are made for a range of identifiable purposes and largely outside the auspices of any central government involvement.

A common trend in local government in developed countries, particularly since the 1980s, has been greater activism in promoting local economic development and employment growth. New Zealand has not been an exception (Lancaster 1993). This shift from "managerialism to entrepreneurialism" (Harvey 1989a) has increasingly resulted in local government being involved in enterprise initiatives and the searching out of other proactive means of promoting their particular sites or cities as desirable locations for economic and social activity. An important feature of this new entrepreneurialism is the element of "public-private partnership" that works "to lure highly mobile and flexible production, financial and consumption flows into its space" (Harvey 1989b, p. 11). Such features are clearly discernible in the workings of sister-city relationships. In order to better capture and elaborate on both this partnership focus and local government entrepreneurialism, in Section IV of this paper we develop the hybrid concept of "municipal-community entrepreneurship." Section IV also includes a discussion of agglomeration economies, which are argued as the "source of urban efficiency" and a key to "dynamic cities as engines of growth" (The World Bank 2000, pp. 125, 126).

This article is organized as follows. In the next section we describe the phenomenon of sister-cities, a topic on which there is a paucity of academic literature, despite the fact that thousands of such relationships exist between cities across the world and a significant proportion of the world's people live in cities that have formally entered into some form of twinning agreement. Section III sets out the integrative framework to examine the operation of sister-cities, based on the multifold relationship between culture and commerce. The extension we develop, which overlays this integrated approach with a focus on the simultaneously operating multi-level entrepreneurial partnerships necessary to sustain active sister-city relationships, follows in the next section. In order to accomplish this, we formulate the concept of "municipal-community entrepreneurship" which pivots on multi-level entrepreneurial partnerships, and argue for the necessity of such entrepreneurship when setting up and sustaining success ful sister-city relationships. Section V is given over to a description of a successful sister-city relationship, that between Hastings in New Zealand and Guilin in China. This particular relationship was selected in order to highlight salient features of the extended integrated approach to the analysis of sister-cities and to demonstrate that when these features are present, sister-city relationships are likely to succeed. In the penultimate section, benefits of sister-city relationships are commented on. We end the paper with a concluding observation on the role that the sister-city movement plays in the global-local dynamic that characterizes the emerging landscape of the twenty-first century. The general applicability of municipal-community entrepreneurship and its potential for enhancing the sustainability of cities is also stressed.

The Sister-Cities Phenomenon

THE POPULAR LITERATURE ON SISTER-CITIES largely credits the development of the phenomenon of sister-cities to former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower's support (Hepler 1994, p. 22) at a White House conference in 1956 of a national initiative proposing a people-to-people program. It is claimed that President Eisenhower's intention was to "involve individuals and organized groups at all levels of society in citizen diplomacy, with the hope that personal relationships, fostered through sister city, county and state affiliations, would lessen the chance of future world conflicts" (Sister Cities International 1999). The initial aim of the broad movement was "to increase international understanding and foster world peace by furthering international communication and exchange at the person-to-person level through city-to-city affiliations" (Sister Cities New Zealand Inc. undated).

However, the roots of the sister-cities phenomenon can be traced back more directly to the aftermath of the Second World War and the help British cities gave European cities devastated by the conflict. [1] In 1944, even before the end of the War, Coventry formed a link with Stalingrad on the basis of their shared experiences of devastating German bombing. At the end of the War, Reading established a link with Zaandem in the Netherlands and Oxford, England's old established and famous university town, set up a relationship with its Dutch counterpart Leiden (Brown 1998, p. 3). The first city to help an ex-enemy town however was Bristol, which under the urging of Professor August Closs, the German-born head of the German Department at Bristol University, made the decision in August 1947 to twin with the city of Hanover. Sacks of food and clothes were sent as relief goods from Bristol to Hanover. A "music for old shoes" scheme began which comprised sending thousands of pairs of shoes to Hanover schoolchildren in return for performances by Hanoverian singers and musicians. "Operation scholar" was a reciprocal exchange of schoolchildren that had become established between the two cities by 1951. The scheme has continued uninterrupted since then and has involved the exchange of over 20,000 young people since its inception. Other early city to city links that have also survived for more than half a century include the Reading--Dusseldorf and the Oxford-Bonn connections (Brown 1998).

There are a number of key features unique to sister-city relationships. The first of these is that the relationship is cemented by the signing of a formal agreement, which is almost always done by city mayors (or corresponding local officials). Second, agreements are signed with the intention that they last indefinitely. [2] Third, because the relationship is an ongoing one, it is not limited to one single project, but covers a range of shared activities. The literature from the City Council of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, lists some of the projects of its sister-cities program as school art exchanges; penpals; student exchanges; letter exchanges through the Internet; friendship visits between the sister-cities; reciprocal council staff visits; local cultural celebrations; and helping the exchange of trade, research and technology between Christchurch and its sister-cities (Christchurch City Council undated). While most of these activities are fairly typical of sister-city interactions, there is no one formula adhered to within sister-city relationships generally, but each relationship develops its own set of activities which best suit the needs and resources of both partners. Other possible activities include the extension of aid when one of the partners is struck by disaster, and assistance by way of advice, information, equipment and other help when the pairing involves a developed with a less developed community. Fourth, although city officials are crucial in setting up and supporting a sister-city relationship, the great majority of people involved in sister-city activities are unpaid volunteers. Fifth, these relationships are carried out largely at a grassroots and local body level and do not rely on the support or patronage of national governments. Finally, there is a tacit understanding that sister-city relationships should be characterized by "genuine reciprocity of effort and benefit, with neither community profiting at the expense of the other" (Zelinsky 1991, p. 3).

Zelinsky (1991, p. 1) claims that the choice of a sister-city is not a random process but is based on any number of criteria including "historical connections, shared economic, cultural, recreational and ideological concerns, similar or identical place names, [3] and, to a certain extent, the friction of distance." Just as importantly however, and not necessarily separate from the criteria Zelinsky outlines, are the individual contacts and private initiatives that go into establishing and sustaining city connections. An examination of the beginnings of many sister-city relationships will unearth the importance of these early individual connections, as is demonstrated in the example of the Hastings--Guilin sister-city relationship described in Section V of this paper.

In the United States, the implementation of sister-cities programmes has been seen as a support for democratic principles. For example, it is argued by Ward (1995, p. 68) that with the end of the Cold War and the rise of young democracies in Eastern Europe, the American organization Sister Cities International (SCI) [4] has used some of its resources to help train elected foreign officials. It has also been suggested (The Economist 1989; Zelinsky 1990) that some American cities have adopted sister-city partnerships as a way of expressing disapproval of and resistance to official American policies, which explains the very high number of twinnings (91 in 1990) with Nicaraguan communities. Increasingly, the sister-city relationship is being taken up as a model for other criteria-specific organizations, the members of which wish to contact and support one another. One such organization is Sister Cities Of Size Acceptance, made up of social, support and activist groups from New Zealand, Sweden and American cities and states including Philadelphia, South Carolina, South Jersey, Austin and Los Angeles "fighting for the rights of fat people and their supporters" (International Size Acceptance Association undated). A further use of sister-city relationships is the linking of groups and agencies to these relationships for specific purposes. An example of this is the link forged between the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Aging section with Sister Cities International, aimed at joining American aging programmes with those of other countries through the exchange of professionals, volunteers and technical assistance in the field of aging with the aim of strengthening aging services (Administration on Aging 1996).

III

The Integrated Approach

THE INTEGRATED APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF SISTER-CITIES has been developed in New Zealand research on sister-cities by Cremer et al. (1996) and Ramasamy and Cremer (1998). Basic to the approach is the idea that through formal sister-city arrangements "cities rediscover one of their original roles as meeting places between different people and cultures, and thus create a (market) place for economic and business activities (Ramasamy and Gremer 1998, p. 449). In their explanation of sister-city relationships the same authors note that the earlier phase of the sister-city movement was dominated by the idea of international friendship through the understanding of the culture of others. O'Toole (1999, p. 2) terms this phase of sister-city relationship "the associative phase," where the primary objectives of these types of twinning relations are based on notions of international friendship, cultural exchange and a general international awareness. More recently issues of commerce and economic development have become more important. This fits with O'Toole's third phase of sister-city relationships, the commercial phase. O'Toole (ibid) comments that in the Australian context the increasing pressure for local governments to act as economic developers has forced some cities to redefine their sister-city relationship in a commercial direction. [5] This does not necessarily mean abandoning the earlier phases, but rather is an attempt to take advantage of the relationship to further local economic aims. It is increasingly believed, however, that a two-way relationship exists between commerce and culture and that it is necessary that the two facets of the sister-city relationship remain closely interwoven. Understanding another culture contributes to trade and investment while engaging in business provides cultural understandings with a reliable and lasting base (Ramasamy and Cremer 1998, pp. 449-450). An overemphasis on either the cultural aspect of the relationship, as in the early days when friendship and understanding were so strongly the focus, or on the economic aspect of the relationship, which appears to be the current trend, are not likely to result in successful sister-city relationships, nor in the benefits that can accrue from these to the individual and the locality.

The integrated approach however, focuses on more than just the melding together of culture and economics. Cremer et al. (1996, p. 12) describe the integrated approach to sister-city relationships as one which "strives for a balance of cultural, political, social, and economic development for both cities, and insists on tangible results in all of those priority areas." Elsewhere Cremer is quoted as describing the integrated approach as one which "combines trade and cultural initiatives, strategic planning, leadership from the top, the involvement of community and the media and committing resources rather than "relying on the efforts of a few individuals"' (Sister Cities New Zealand 1999, p. 5).

Central to the integrated approach are implicit assumptions about the "nature of human nature" which together form a critique of the suppositions of the nature of individuals that underpin neoclassical economics. The successful operation of sister-city programs will not occur when the individuals involved act with nothing more than economic self interest, in terms of what England (1993) calls the "separative self" or what Granovetter (1985) views as atomization. The integrated approach recognizes a concern with sociability as an important supplement to the profit motive. It also acknowledges the frequent demonstration of altruism and trust and the intertwining of non-economic goals with economic goals.

Moving from the nature of the individuals involved to that of the relationship itself, Cremer et al. (1996, p. 12) argue that to pay insufficient attention to, or to not take account of, the economic dimension of sister-city relationships and the contribution that commerce can make to the sustainability of relationships is "expensive romanticism." Such a perspective pays little heed to the centrality of economic activity in people's lives. In addition, they claim that in the long run, the most reliable and strongest drivers for international understanding and exchange are economic and business links and work opportunities. They are not, however, arguing that a sister-city relationship driven solely by economic interests will be successful. Cultural exchanges and the development of greater cross-cultural understandings are the prime motivations for the grassroots involvement necessary to sustain sister-city relationships. In turn, along with a supportive administration, it is the cultural understandings that are built up over time that provide the positive environment which can reduce risks and uncertainties involved in economic enterprises such as trade, tourism and investment. The authors then go on to comment that "a trade mission to a country which includes visits to a sister-city is almost certainly a winner, whereas a one-off trade mission to any country will be almost certainly a failure" (ibid.).

The integrated approach to sister-city analysis developed from research into these relationships in which New Zealand cities are involved. Major findings from the research showed that while all cities responding to a survey attached a high importance to culture, international understandings and educational objectives, they were sharply divided over the importance of economic objectives, with almost one in three placing low priority on economic objectives. This suggested to the researchers a low likelihood of a sustainable sister-city relationship in the long term and a significant loss of financial support and possible benefits for the respective New Zealand cities. The data also showed that the strongest motivation for pursuing sister-city relationships came from non-commercial areas. This is explained by the gains from such facets of the relationship as increased international understandings and cultural and educational exchanges being open to large numbers of people. The researchers commented here, howeve r, that although economic benefits might appear to assist only a small number of people, economic activities do advantage the wider community in terms of employment creation and income and tax generation. This realization, they argue, is important for the success of sister-city relationships (Cremer et al. 1996).

An examination of New Zealand's sister-city relationships reveals that choice of city with which to twin has shown an interesting shift over time. Not surprisingly, New Zealand cities had more sister-city affiliations with Australian cities than with any other individual country (as of 1998). However, of the 38 New Zealand--Australia affiliations, only one had been established since 1990. Although 14 New Zealand--European sister-city affiliations existed in 1998, all were formed prior to 1990 and of the 31 New Zealand--North America sister-city affiliations, only 1 was formed since 1990. However, 20 New Zealand city--Asian city affiliations were formed after 1990. The majority of these were with Japanese cities, but currently Chinese cities are making a concerted push to intensify their links with New Zealand cities and formal relationships with China are steadily increasing. [6] Attempts by China to free up its economy and open up the country to tourism have coincided with Chinese efforts to establish siste r-city links not just in New Zealand but many other countries as well.

The opportunity to analyse the China-New Zealand sister-city relationships adds support for the integrated approach. Initially it is important to ask the question: Why are Chinese city officials so keen to develop such relationships? At a pragmatic level it is clear that among other things, the Chinese seek investment in their economy and proficiency in English language skills. To focus only on these components of the Chinese motivation, however, is limited. We know that any sister-city links that are formed with China must be accompanied by motives other than sheer economic profit and understood by both parties as multi-faceted. It is here that we turn to an intertwining of the cultural with the economic in order to understand how best to establish and sustain links between cities in the two nations, It is understood that China takes a very long term view of its international relationships and takes time to develop friendships. Of major importance too is an understanding of the controlled nature of Chinese life. This demands that any contacts, other than those of individuals, must be made through official channels, and for this reason a lot of formality and procedural issues have to be accommodated (Cross 2000, p. 2).

The integrated approach to sister-cities is particularly necessary in the early phases of establishing a sister-city relationship with a Chinese city, when the formal, protocol based input of the mayor and councillors cannot be underestimated. Without visible and active support from the mayor and city councillors and other leading local personalities, initiatives and activities in China lack credibility and clout. Building a good relationship between the two respective city mayors is, on a very practical level, seen as a signal that administrative and bureaucratic procedures and obstacles can be overcome smoothly, a perception equally appropriate to business ventures and the involvement of chief executive officers. The cultural background to this is that the Chinese tend to emphasize individual authority, integrity and linkages more than procedures, contracts and organisations. The Chinese concept of "face" and "giving face to somebody" is also a good reason why city officials should be involved in sister-ci ty activities whenever possible, especially at the beginning (Cremer et al. 1996).

The integrated approach as developed by Cremer et al. (1996) and outlined above is based on a multifold relationship between culture and commerce. In the following section we advocate an extension to this approach with a focus on simultaneously operating, multi-level entrepreneurial partnerships which we conceive as municipal-community entrepreneurship.

Municipal-Community Entrepreneurship

AT THE OUTSET OF THIS PAPER, in the Introduction, we alerted the reader to the new entrepreneurialism of local governments. Describing this as "municipal entrepreneurship" we note here that there are several variants ranging from "alternative" revenue-raising ventures such as advertising on public property or the sale of the city imprimatur as in the case of Atlanta to VISA USA so it could offer the "official credit card" of the city of the 1996 Summer Olympics (Myers 1995), to the wooing of domestic and foreign investors with offers of incentives. At the more international end of the spectrum, there are growing attempts by local governments to act as a catalyst in capitalizing on new opportunities for innovation and cooperation presented by globalization-localization forces. Posing the question, "Can city governments become strategic brokers that influence their city's...position in the global urban hierarchy?", the latest World Development Report answers in the affirmative, with the proviso that appropriate planning and support is required (The World Bank 2000, p. 136).

At an overarching theoretical level, municipal entrepreneurship is a vital facet in any city strategy for exploiting the advantages of agglomeration economies, which constitute "the source of urban efficiency" (The World Bank 2000, p. 126). For organizations, agglomeration economies are the spillover effects, deriving from proximity to similar competitors. They involve benefits that can accrue from being located within a cluster of organizations in the same industry (see, for example, Baum and Mezias 1992; Ingram and Inman 1996; Porter 1998). These benefits are variously described as "localization economies" (The World Bank 2000, p. 127). At the city/urban area level, agglomeration economies encompass not only localization economies but also "urbanization economies," which are "benefits that derive from proximity to many different economic actors" (The World Bank 2000, p. 127). Agglomeration in large urban areas also results in a diversified economic base that can act as a buffer against economic fluctuation s with employment being able to flow within different sectors and industries in the locale, thus keeping down the average rate of unemployment. For consumers, the concentration of services and entertainment opportunities within cities are also a benefit of agglomeration (The World Bank 2000, p. 127). The greater the extent of agglomeration economies of an area, the larger the capacity to offset any additional costs of conducting activity in that area against an alternative location and the higher the productivity of activity in the area.

We may argue that successful sister-city relationships are one manifestation of municipal entrepreneurship and inasmuch as they make a contribution to the economic and social dynamism of cities, they indirectly contribute to reinforcement and magnification of agglomeration economies. The whole sister-city movement offers ample scope for the exercise of municipal entrepreneurship, albeit at a more subtle and relatively low financial cost level. Spending on the relationships by local governments in New Zealand approximately averaged US$12,000 in 1995 (Ramasamy and Cremer 1998, p. 454). While the setting up of the overall institutional framework for the twinning pact is an initial first step, to carry the agreement forward requires commitment and proactive nurturing by local government officials to build trust, cooperation and tangible yield as well as less tangible and measurable economic and social benefits. The distinguishing feature for the viability and success of the arrangement, however, is that it also requires significant community activism. It is this mix of community and municipal level action to tap into the opportunities that the sister-city arrangement presents for the mutual advantage of economic and social actors in both cities that we conceive as a hybrid entrepreneurialism we term "municipal-community entrepreneurship."

The notion of entrepreneurship here is a simple one, used to convey the specific, proactive steps to organize, establish, maintain and foster relationships and opportunities that directly or indirectly present at various levels within the sister-city arrangement. Thus for instance, at the lower community tier, school student exchanges and visits between sister cities are common. These require a great deal of time and commitment initially on the part of those members of the school staff and local government who are involved with arranging each visit, usually followed by fund-raising activity by students and parents to finance the visit and a myriad of other efforts, trivial though they appear to the non-involved outside observer, to ensure the smooth running of the event. The combination of all these actions are entrepreneurial in that they are taken in order to avail of opportunities, in this case educational, afforded by the sister-city arrangement. Thus entrepreneurship in the context of this paper entails actively tapping into the opportunities for beneficial links under the sister-city umbrella.

Elsewhere we have developed the concept of "community entrepreneurship" and provided New Zealand applications to illustrate community entrepreneurship in action (de Bruin and Dupuis 1995; de Bruin 1998). Our notion of community entrepreneurship has been seen as complementing the role of individual entrepreneurs in stimulating change and creating employment at a local level. It envisages the community supplying initiative and enterprise for the creation, transformation and expansion of employment creating ventures and is seen as a possible answer to both an initial lack of individual entrepreneurial skills and employment opportunities in labour market disadvantaged communities and for ethnic minority groups. It entails innovative community efforts as a catalyst for the growth of local employment opportunities particularly for ethnic minorities with low levels of human capital.

The concept of community entrepreneurship that we envisaged was quite deliberately focused on employment creation. As such, this entrepreneurship formulation does not convey adequately the wider spread of activity nor the more elementary style of entrepreneurship that the municipal-community entrepreneurship of successful sister-city relationships mainly exhibits. At this point, however, it must be noted that this does not mean that our hybrid concept of municipal-community entrepreneurship is peculiar to the sister-city case of this paper. Indeed the sister-city arrangement is merely the device used to empirically develop the concept. Thus we show in the dedicated example provided in Section V of this paper that positive benefits from twin city pacts involve both local government commitment as well as community activism on the part of a variety of community organizations, that is, municipal-community entrepreneurship. The concept itself hence may be adopted as a notion that epitomizes the importance of the p artnership aspect in the maintenance of the dynamism of cities and other sires of localization. It also brings to specific prominence the forces of localization and decentralization/devolution of the role and responsibilities of state to sub-national tiers of government. Thus the inclusion of a dual terminology--"community" and "municipal"--effectively communicates the need for active community participation together with an explicit, overarching support provided at a local governmental level rather than that of central government. As Glaeser in his recent investigation into the question "Are Cities Dying?" points out, local governments are "crucial to the fate of cities" (1998, p. 141). [8]

It must also be mentioned that municipal-community entrepreneurship does not necessarily imply only a sense of basic entrepreneurialism commonly encompassed by sister-city activities. As with community entrepreneurship, municipal-community entrepreneurship can open new horizons through "market-leading" activity. Market-leading is described as a deliberately staged affair, unlike "market-following." The growth of the economy stimulates a market-following supply response from enterprises in order to satisfy new or additional demand. The relative price of labour and the elasticity of substitution between labour and capital will contribute to determining whether additional demand for labour will accompany this response and result in employment growth. By contrast, market-leading manages change to create demand and employment growth which would not otherwise have occurred. Market-leading may be likened to the Schumpeterian "creative response." [9] Market-following, on the other hand, is more in line with an "adap tive response." Similarly, market-leading community entrepreneurship or in this case municipal-community entrepreneurship is akin to Leibenstein's N-entrepreneurship, [10] since it engages in the creation and operation of ventures where the production function is not completely known (de Bruin 1998).

To conclude this section, we reiterate that municipal-community entrepreneurship is a concept that can be applied beyond the confines of the sister-city programme. However, an important benefit of our use of the sister-cities case, which by its inherently international nature overcomes the spatial propinquity usually associated with cities, to develop this concept is to highlight that this form of entrepreneurship can involve innovative action that transcends the local in order to take advantage of opportunities that present at a global level.

Dedicated Illustration

As FURTHER ILLUSTRATION OF THE KEY POINTS discussed in Sections III and IV above, in this section of the paper we draw on a well established and successful sister-city relationship, that of the city of Hastings, New Zealand with Guilin in China. The selection of the Hastings--Guilin sister-city relationship was deliberate as it exhibits to a large extent the features we have put forward as intrinsic to the extended integrated approach that we see as fundamental in the development and maintenance of a successful sister-city relationship. These features are an initial person-to-person link; strong involvement of city officials, particularly the mayor; strong community support; a well developed strategic plan; a highly organized governance structure; and adequate funding.

The relationship between Hastings and Guilin, like many other successful sister-city programmes, had its roots in a person-to-person link. In this case the connection was established by the late Dr. Don McKenzie, a research scientist and New Zealand leader in the pipfruit industry, [11] who first proposed the Hastings--Guilin link in 1978. He identified a number of common areas of interest between the two cities, including horticulture and the rural-urban mix, and developed a range of contacts between the two cities. He also instigated the re-establishment and became the founding president of the New Zealand China Friendship Society in 1985 and launched a horticultural technician placement scheme. After his death in 1988, he was described in the Guilin newspaper as "the friendship messenger" (Hastings-Guilin Sister City Strategic Plan 1999, p. 2).

Acting on Dr. McKenzie's suggestion that a sister-city relationship with Guilin should be pursued, Hastings city officials took up the idea and approached the Chinese Embassy. In 1980 the mayor of Guilin invited a Hastings delegation to visit his city and discuss the proposal. The following year he made a reciprocal visit to Hastings, at which time the sister-city protocol was signed, including an agreement to "establish friendly city relations and to promote and foster goodwill and understanding" between the people of the two cities. It was also set out that friendship would be developed by "an interchange of all information in the fields of industry, agriculture, science and technology, city management and development, tourism, culture, education and trade" (Hastings-Guilin Sister City Strategic Plan 1999, p. 3). The mayoral support so necessary for these programmes to flourish was initially strong and is still highly visible today, with Hastings' current mayor also being the president of Sister Cities New Zealand Inc.

Hasting's strategic plan sets out plainly the mission statement and the objectives of the relationship. The latter include educational development through exchanges and curriculum programmes aimed primarily at children, students and professionals; cultural development, to be achieved in its broadest sense through people-to-people exchanges of all kinds; business links aimed at the facilitation of quality data, contacts, identification of opportunities and business links; and local government exchanges and information sharing.

Hastings' sister-city governance structure is clearly delineated and includes the Guilin Community Forum, the Sister City Board of Directors, three specialist link groups given over to education, culture and business and the Hastings District Council. The Guilin Community Forum provides a twice yearly opportunity for information sharing, education, networking, reporting back on activities, planning and reviewing. The Community Forum has a strong grassroots focus. The Board of Directors has promotional and overseeing responsibilities. It is also the key group in terms of pursuing the four major objectives of the sister-city relationship and devising and reviewing strategic planning for three to five year time periods. Board membership includes representatives from communities of interest including education, business, media, culture and iwi (Maori tribal groupings), the Chinese Association, the New Zealand China Friendly Society and the Hastings District Council.

The three specialist link groups were established to act as catalysts for establishing education, business and cultural links between the sister cities of Hastings and Guilin. These link programmes are strategically organized. For example, the education link group is charged with producing, reviewing and putting into action a three-year education plan and in liaising with its Guilin counterpart in supporting a similar program.

Adequate funding is always a concern for sister-city projects, although Hastings is better financed than most other such New Zealand projects. It has a local government contribution, community support in cash or in kind and delegation or group and individual visits to Guilin which are self-funding, as well as other grants from patrons such as Asia 2000 or the Lottery Board. The local government contribution amounts to $15,000, or approximately US$7,500. In addition, the Council supports sister-cities through a significant proportion of staff time, vehicle use, communications and administration, amounting to a further contribution of $16,200, or around US$8,100.

To conclude this section we need to make the point that the Hastings-Guilin relationship did not emerge from the flurry of East Asian sister-city contacts established in the 1990s. It demonstrates how local actors fostered the creation and nurturing of ties which now can be described as firmly embedded. It also amply illustrates the operation of vertical and horizontal multi-level ties. The dynamic flow of the vertical line of partnership incorporates, in a non-hierarchical fashion, the Guilin Community Forum, the Sister City Board of Directors, specialist link groups and the Hastings District Council. The imagery of the horizontal flow is apt in that it symbolizes the international outreach between the two cities. At each and every level of partnership there is evidence of aspects of the operation of municipal-community entrepreneurship.

The Benefits of Sister-City Relationships

A WIDE RANGE OF BENEFITS, both tangible and intangible, accrue to cities involved in sister-city relationships. Among these are the benefits of international trade, cultural exchanges, educational exchanges, migration, investment and tourism. Within the sister-city movement it is widely thought that intangible benefits are derived from exposing the citizens of a city, particularly the city's youth, to different cultures. It is expected that the understandings developed and the connections gained through sustained face-to-face contact will enable people to better function in a world characterized by increasing globalization.

Sustaining sister-city relationships is something of a balancing act in New Zealand's current tight economic climate. The continuation of these relationships is often cast in local body political debate as more of a frills concern, rather than the core business of a city council. One way of discussing the benefits of sister-city relationships is to explore the criticisms made by detractors of the sister-city movement who do not see it as core business for a city council. Criticisms usually fall into three categories. The first suggests that people are either unaware or apathetic about these relationships. The second centers on the "strange choice" of the cities selected. A third commonly voiced criticism is that the sister-city connection represents little more than a "junket for politicians" financed from rate payers' money (Dupuis and de Bruin 2000).

In the absence of systematic New Zealand research gauging New Zealanders' awareness of sister-city relationships, we point to two examples which in themselves may not make the front pages of major daily newspapers but which are certainly highlighted in local publications and benefit, not necessarily in large scale or economic ways, people involved at the grass roots level. The first example highlights the unique contribution to the North Shore City [12] Libraries devised by visiting students from Konohana High School in Osaka, Japan. In association with sister-city exchanges, Konohana students have visited the North Shore almost yearly for the past nine years. For their visit, the Japanese students arrange for a bazaar to be set up on North Shore City's main street, where they sell to passersby the gifts and souvenirs they brought with them from Japan. The money raised, which has averaged $1,500 a time, is donated to strengthen the cultural sections of the North Shore Libraries. This is very significant in a city that boasts the second highest library patronage in New Zealand and in the context of the advertising North Shore libraries give this venture. The second example also involves high school students, though in this case that of New Zealand schoolchildren travelling to visit their sister-city counterparts. Since the inception of sister-city programmes in New Zealand, many thousands of school students from New Zealand cities will have studied overseas, being hosted by families from another culture, attending school, enhancing their language skills and deepening their understandings of other cultures, thus fulfilling the initial aims of the sister-city movement. The wider significance of such exchanges cannot be underplayed. Not only the students involved but also their families, friends and teachers benefit from such broadening of experience and the increase in cultural understandings so developed.

The second common criticism of sister-cities has to do with the 'strange choice' of the cities selected. This idea explored more deeply highlights some salient features of sister-city relationships generally and points to mutual benefits that might not be obvious initially. An example should clarify this point. Waitakere City is one of the cities that make up Auckland. It is well known as an eco-city and has implemented a raft of innovative startegies for insuring a sustainable future and enhancing the lives of its citizens. Waitakere's sister-city is Ningbo, an important commercial city, and the second largest trading port in China. According to the signed sister-city agreement, the Waitakere City-Ningbo relationship is one of sharing ideas, knowledge and technology. Initially it might not appear there are similarities between the two cities, but Ningbo city officials, especially, saw themselves as facing similar problems to those of Waitakere City. Wanting to know more about sustainability issues, particul arly those relating to sustainable building and sustainable technology, the sister-city relationship was initiated. While this relationship has an economic base beneficial to the two cities, it is broadening out to include cultural and work exchanges.

The third frequently heard criticism, that of sister-cities being little more than a "junket for politicians," perhaps reflects the politics of envy. While it is often the case that the cost of official delegations to sister-cities is met from local government coffers, the benefits that arise from the official nature of such visits cannot be overemphasized. City councils, whether New Zealand or overseas, do not enter into sister-city relationships lightly. After all, it is necessary for the mayors of both cities to sign a contract in order for the sister-city relationship to become formally established. An examination of North Shore City's sister-city contract with Taichung in Taiwan shows just how serious these agreements are. In this contract both cities agree to "establish lasting, friendly relations ... strive to maintain their close alliance and improve bilateral understanding and trust" and "make every effort to contribute to the free and prosperous life of people in both Taichung and North Shore City. " Both cities also agreed to "exchange experiences concerning municipal construction projects, to organize visits, and to learn from each other" and to "promote co-operation in the area of trade, cultural, economic affairs, education and social development to strengthen their binding ties." It is not surprising therefore that when Taichung recently suffered a disastrous earthquake, North Shore City sent its Civil Defence Chief to visit Taichung, not only as a gesture of sister-city support, but also to offer expertise and advice. As a result, an international conference on dealing with the impacts of earthquakes and disasters has been set up in North Shore City at the request of Taichung officials.

To conclude this section it must be conceded that any discussion of the benefits of sister-cities must acknowledge economic benefits. These however, are difficult to measure precisely because too many factors are involved and too few data exist on this level of analysis. Research on international trade, investment and tourism, though, leaves no doubt that these activities do not flourish unless they are accompanied by a supportive environment, As Cremer et al. comment, "business and tourism go where they feel welcome and supported." At the local level sister-city relationships can provide economic opportunities in a supportive environment (1996, p. 8). One key area where the economic benefits of sister-city relationships could possibly be effectively measured is that of tourism. According to Kearsley (2000, p. 1), tourism is a major global force that could be the world's biggest industry, consuming one in eight of all discretionary dollars spent. While urban tourism is a major component of overall tourism, a s yet little is known about the tangible benefits of sister-city related tourism and few, if any, cities have deliberately promoted their city to their sister-city as a special and worthwhile place to visit. This aspect of the sister-city relationship however, provides considerable potential and is an aspect of the economics of sister-cities that could be readily measured.

VII

Conclusion

THE SISTER-CITY MOVEMENT MAY BE VIEWED as a small but potentially powerful element of the "'quiet revolution' in local governance" (The World Bank 2000, pp. 154--5), and a model of partnership that is deserving greater recognition in ensuring the sustainability of the economic and social vibrancy of cities. With successful sister-city relationships embodying a partnership that allows "synergy and the combining of resources among the public sector, international organizations, the voluntary and community sector, individuals and households" (The World Bank 2000, p. 155), and symbolizing the benefits that can accrue from bridging the global-local divide, they represent a crucial catalyst in the facilitation of urban well-being in the 21st century.

As a concluding observation, we stress that the concept of municipal-community entrepreneurship has wider applicability than merely the sister-city phenomenon. Current urban political landscapes, focusing as they do on decentralization and the rethinking of the role of local government, are increasingly highlighting the importance of multi-level partnerships for economic and social development. At the dawn of the new century we can foresee the value and strength of the concept of municipal-community entrepreneurship as an explanatory tool for analyzing the current urban condition. When operationalized, its potential for reaping agglomeration economies and hence enhancing the sustainability of cities should not be underestimated.

(*.) Rolf Cremer Ph.D. and Anne de Bruin Ph.D. are in the College of Business and Ann Dupuis Ph.D. is in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University, New Zealand.

Notes

(1.) Precedents for helping conflict-ravaged Cities had already been set after the First World War. For example, the city of Bristol in England financed the building of houses for war widows in Bethune, France (Brown 1998, p. 3)

(2.) There are a number of instances however, where agreements become dormant, are suspended or cancelled.

(3.) An example here is the case of the Stratford cities in Canada, the United States and New Zealand, all of which have a sister-city relationship with Stratford in England.

(4.) SCI is the national membership organization for sister-city, county and state programs in the United States and recognizes, registers and coordinates American linkages with communities worldwide. The sister-city relationships American cities are involved in account for 2,191 affiliations or twinnings. In addition, there are a further 201 affiliations or twinnings associated with states, provinces and prefectures. In all, American communities are involved in 2,395 affiliations or twinnings worldwide (Sister Cities International 1999).

(5.) O'Toole terms the second type of sister-city relationship "reciprocative." This phase is characterized by the growth of educational exchange systems which provide a safe and relatively cheap way of running an exchange program, especially with homestay arrangements keeping costs to a minimum. O'Toole argues that education exchange programs are not limited to school and tertiary students, but also include professionals such as government employees who could also broaden their skills (O'Toole 1999, p. 2).

(6.) A similar push to establish sister-city links can be seen with New Zealand cities and those in Taiwan and South Korea.

(7.) We cannot emphasize this point too greatly. The Confucian culture of East Asia places great stress on personal relationships. East Asians devote time, patience and energy to foster good relationships. Face-to-face contact is an integral part in building such relationships.

(8.) It is also interesting to note here that conceptually Glaeser envisages a city as "just a dense agglomeration of people and firms." As such, "all of the benefits of cities come ultimately from reduced transport costs for goods, people and ideas" (1998, p. 140). These, the positive benefits, arise from agglomeration.

(9.) The role of the entrepreneur in the stimulation of dynamic growth was initially highlighted by Joseph Schumpeter early in this century. Under the Schumpeterian schema of capitalist development, the entrepreneur is the key agent of change. In a little known paper, Comments on a Plan for the Study of Entrepreneurship, thought to be written in 1946, Schumpeter identifies "creative response" in business activity with entrepreneurship. When the economy or a sector of the economy or some firms in an industry adapts to change by an expansion or contraction "within its existing practice," this is an "adaptive response." By contrast, if the reaction is "outside the range of existing practice," it is a creative response (Schumpeter 1991 [1946?]).

(10.) Leibenstein distinguishes between two broad types of entrepreneurship, namely routine entrepreneurship and Schumpeterian or "new type" or "N-entrepreneurship." Routine entrepreneurship involves the activities of coordinating and operating a firmly established enterprise in known and well defined markets, where "all the parts of the production function in use (and likely alternatives in current use) are well known." By contrast, N-entrepreneurship "involves the activities necessary to create or carry on an enterprise where not all the markets are well established or clearly defined and/or in which the relevant parts of the production function are not completely known" (Leibenstein 1968, p. 73).

(11.) Dr. McKenzie played a key role in establishing early scientific relations with China which led to new kiwifruit plant material being introduced into New Zealand's breeding program. He is also credited with breeding the plant material for the recently released apples Pacific Rose and Southern Snap.

(12.) Auckland is made up of four major cities, Auckland City itself, North Shore City which extends from north of the Auckland Harbour Bridge to Rodney County, Waitakere City, commonly called West Auckland and Manukau City, located to the south and east of Auckland City itself.

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