Cooptation of ENGOs or Treadmill of Production? Advocacy Coalitions and Climate Change Policy in Finland

Corporatist Nordic welfare states are largely thought to have exemplary environmental policies. Finland, however, was labeled “a failing ecostate” by a recent study owing to its weak climate change policy. Why is Finland different? We use data from a survey of organizations belonging to the Finnish climate change policy network to investigate two alternative explanations related to policy networks. According to the Cooptation Thesis, inclusive corporatist polities, where environmental NGOs (ENGOs) have support from and access to the state, formulate less ambitious policies because environmentalists moderate their views to secure state funding and political access. Second, according to the Treadmill of Production Theory, the decisive feature of Nordic corporatism with regard to environmental policy is the tripartite system linking business interests, labor unions, and the state in a coalition that prioritizes economic over ecological values. The results indicate that the ENGO Coalition is the least influential, least resourceful, smallest, least linked to the others, and not particularly moderate. The Treadmill Coalition is the most influential, most resourceful, second largest, well linked to the state, and least ecological in its beliefs. Thus, of the two policy network explanations, the dominance of the Treadmill Coalition rather than cooptation of ENGOs gets support.     

Knowledge That Matters: Identifying Regional Knowledge Assets of the Tampere Region

The existing literature considers knowledge as one of the key drivers of regional development. The idiosyncratic nature of regional knowledge is also acknowledged: each region possesses its unique knowledge assets which serve as the basis of value creation. However, what is currently not well-known is how the region-specific knowledge assets can be identified, for example, in order to manage and develop them. Thus this paper aims first to explore how the relevant knowledge assets can be identified for a given region, and, second, to describe what the context-specific knowledge assets are. These objectives are pursued using a qualitative case approach. As a case region, this study focuses on the Tampere Region in Finland. The study makes a contribution by providing a new insight regarding the contextual identification of regional knowledge assets and by illustrating the key knowledge assets of the case region. These insights are considered valuable for the regional actors responsible for carrying out similar initiatives in their respective regions.     

CONDUCTING COMMISSIONED RESEARCH

In 2013, the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health commissioned a testimony-driven inquiry into failings in child welfare in 1937–1983. An academic research team was appointed to produce data on maltreatment (knowledge production), to identify and recognize injustice (moral objective), and to recommend improvents in child welfare services (developmental objective). This article discusses the Inquiry and scrutinizes the strengths and weaknesses of the model applied. Two aspects emerged to suggest that commissioned research is susceptible. First, among care-leavers, the Inquiry raised a variety of expectations, which the report and subsequent apology ceremony were able to meet only partially. Second, as ad hoc teams were commissioned to draft recommendations with no political mandate, it is unclear who monitors whether recommendations are acted upon or not. However, the commissioned research had strengths in its knowledge production as well as in its political neutrality.