Antti Pelkonen

During the last two decades, Finland has experienced an extensive societal transformation in which the Nordic welfare state model has been challenged by economic turbulences and globalisation. At the same time, the building of an information society, in which there is a growing emphasis on economic competitiveness and knowledge-intensive production, has become a central political metaobjective and formed a new national strategy. This article examines governance changes related to these transformations. The analysis shows that the Finnish experience combines both strong corporatist and market modes of governance but, at the same time, there has been a significant increase in social inequality related to the growing market governance. Such inequalities have been mostly neglected in recent discussions of the Finnish ‘model’ or ‘miracle’. The corporatist system shows a limited capacity towards deliberative and more inclusive approaches, but it also tends to merge with educational modes of governance.

This article examines processes of state restructuring and technopole formation in Finland and in the Helsinki region and takes a critical stand towards the glocal state thesis. The relationship between the nation state and the capital region cities is analysed by focusing on the implications of recent national technology, regional and economic policy measures on the Helsinki region cities and on their responses to national policies. The characteristics of new urban competitiveness policies of the Helsinki region cities are scrutinized with particular attention to the efforts of constructing technopoles as new technology-based agglomerations of research and business activities. The article concludes that the glocal state thesis is inaccurate to describe the Finnish situation as it provides a picture of the nation state that is monolithic and too rigid. In some respects, the developments in Finland have moved in an almost opposite direction.