Declining CitiesDeveloping Cities: Polish and German Perspectives Marek Nowak and Michal Nowosielski (Eds.) Instytut Zachodni, Poznan ´ 2008 2008 the authors and Instytut Zachodni Between Europeanization and Marginalization – ‘‘Nested Urbanism’’ in a German-Polish Border Town Jörg DÜRRSCHMIDT Abstract. Scepticism toward the claim that globalization has been forcing convergence in social and spatial patterns on a ‘‘global city’’ model has triggered a new interest in the variations, contradictions, and complexities of urban and regional development. This has led to a revitalized interest in the ‘‘ordinary city’’ that is on not centre stage of a networked global society. Rather than transcending their hinterland of national political institutions and regional cultural landscapes (as global cities are supposed to do), ordinary cities are ‘‘nested cities,’’ deeply entwined in the complexity of global connectivity, the national developmental model, regional cultural landscape, and local tradition. Border cities along the German-Polish border provide a vivid example of ‘‘nested urbanism.’’ A closer ethnographic look at the GermanPolish twin city of GubenGubin shows that terms such as ‘‘shrin- king’’ and ‘‘marginalized’’ city do not sufficiently grasp the trajectory of this ‘‘ordinary city.’’