FOREST, FLOWS AND IDENTITIES IN FINLAND'S INFORMATION SOCIETY

Abstract

Recent social theory has tended to celebrate boundary transgressions and flexibility. At the same time political thought has adopted the view from academic commentary, that the space of flows is now the dominant geographical logic. This essay proposes that such theoretical contributions might well be problematic from the point of view of progressive, liberatory and environmentally sustainable politics. This essay draws on social theory that neither ignores geography nor forgets nature, to make sense of some of the pressures of living with the information society's imperatives of mobility and flexibility in the Kainuu region of Finland. It also relates these to the promotion of branded regional identities in the information society. In resource-dependent regions like Kainuu, nature, culture and technology, even innovation, are broadly unproblematic elements of social reproduction. Problems arise, however, from the imperative to compete and to be seen to be competitive, and from the speeds at which recognized economic activity takes place. The broader demands of Finland as a national innovation system take inadequate account, as does social theory, of the needs of nurture and reproduction. A more appropriate social theory needs to develop an understanding of these things as part of making a living, and to articulate this with the powerful but loosely defined discourses of economics.

Keywords:

• space of flows
• nature
• identity
• Finland

Notes

1. Since the initial eight months in Helsinki in 1996, I have travelled to Kainuu, the focus of this paper, several times a year, for periods of under a week to a month. I have met and interviewed regional administrators and scientists above all. Thanks to all the people who have shared their thoughts and extended their hospitality. Acknowledgements – BA, W-G.

2. Internationalization is government policy (Osaaminen …  2003).

3. Dependence on the export of forest products was never comfortable, but its benefits were widely distributed and the forest administration enjoyed legitimacy (Berglund 2000, Donner-Amnell 2004).

4. Councillor Merja Ylonen lodged a request that the Regional Council drop this phrase from its publications.

5. Over 20 percent across the region in 2000, by 2005 differences between municipalities had grown, with unemployment in some as low as 14 percent, as high as 22 percent in others. For evidence of these trends, see the province's own website, available at: http://www.kainuu.fi.

6. A research project commissioned by the regional government indicated that Kainuu's inhabitants see themselves as close to nature and are concerned with the ‘health and vitality of the forests, the beauty of the landscape and the opportunity to pick wild berries and mushrooms’ (Mäntymaa 1998, p. 4).