(Re)constructing European Societies at the Grassroots Level

This article addresses Europeanisation processes at the local/regional level, looking at town twinning cooperation between two territories of the Iberia Peninsula, Chaves (Portugal) and Vérin (Spain). Termed by Beck and Grande (2007) as "horizontal Europeanisation", these processes were defined by May and Verwiebe (2010: 303) as “contacts, interactions and social relationships between different European countries, as well as various forms of Pan-European mobility. From an actor-system-dynamic perspective, our research addresses how networks of interaction and activity on both sides of the Portuguese-Spanish border are build and use European policies and opportunities for (re)creating a cross-national social space. We focus on three specific domains of interaction/cooperation (culture/leisure activities, sports and education) oriented towards the building of interregional solidarity. The study is based on qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, that combine semi-structured interviews with local and regional stakeholders and document analysis. We aim to contribute to the sociological analysis of European integration by addressing the ways in which social, political, economic forces come together to (re)create interregional forms of solidarity that, eventually, will transform people’s everyday lives and (re)create a new sense of (European) identity. An initial assessment suggests that considering the EU recurring and deep crises, cooperation amongst local stakeholders can lead to innovative approaches for developing social, cultural, and economic frameworks. These collaborations have the potential to build stronger, more unified communities and pave the way for novel methods of experiencing and promoting European integration.