Transnational cooperation has become a fashionable idea in recent years. In these times of increased transnational communication, cooperation stretching across the borders of nation-states has become a popular way of doing business, also in attempts of promoting democracy through assistance to civil society organizations. In this context, a reasonable question to ask is what is actually going on in these projects as well as how ideas or other items spread through these contacts may be transformed to fit the local context and how these contacts affect actors on both sides of the cooperation.

In Sweden, adult education and its different associations have been and still are important and large parts of Swedish civil society. Many of these voluntary organizations were born from large social movements like for instance ABF (Arbetarnas bildningsförbund or Workers’ Education Association). This organization has also been involved in many international projects over the years among which have been projects with the Estonian organization AHL (Avatud Hariduse Liit or Open Education Association). These projects were largely funded by the Olof Palme International Center, money originally coming from SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) thus also linking this to democracy promotion.

To get at the problem of what is going on in this kind of projects we need to understand processes of spreading. In this context theories concerning diffusion, socialization, translation, learning, etc. are applicable and can assist the understanding of these processes.

Through an investigation into a number of the projects between member organizations of ABF and member organizations of AHL, certain traits and results come through. Some of the most interesting concern: (1) the way ideas, methods, organizational forms, etc. that have been spread in the cooperation (mainly from Sweden to Estonia) have been, not simply adopted, but adjusted to fit an Estonian context; (2) a phenomenon that perhaps can be seen as indirect effects of this cooperation. Members of AHL are now involved in spreading their lessons onwards not only within Estonia but also for instance to Russian voluntary organizations working in the field of adult education; (3) how the cooperation has also affected ABF and the individuals active on that side of the cooperation making also a part of democracy promotion a reciprocal process with valuable lessons for both the expected “transmitter” and the expected “receiver”. These are some of the issues that can be further elaborated on and embedded in the appropriate context.