Varieties of Innovation and Welfare Regimes: The Leap from R&D Projects to the Development of City-regions

In the varieties of capitalism, welfare capitalism, and systems of innovation literatures, the university is a critical actor as public employer, trainer and provider of several public goods. However, there is relatively weak enquiry into the spatial and institutional characteristics of university-led economic development and a relative neglect of the political economy and organizational features of embedded R&D projects in urban and regional planning. We argue that technical projects, far from being stand-alone entities, have taken on the broad characteristics of the university and city-regional development mandate in where they reside. The article is based on an exploratory study of university–industry R&D projects in six city regions of Finland. We show that: (a) the shifting role of universities reflects a changed context for the welfare state in which the “public” debate occurs; (b) These create distinct issues of legitimacy and coalition-building in local economic planning which give rise to diverse regional interpretations of single technology programmes; (c) We categorise three general types of models of R&D projects in universities and propose tentative categories of contributions to “public knowledge”. This diversity of interpretations and outcomes leaves us optimistic regarding the ability of city-regions to adapt and plan for the future against a changing welfare state that shapes the university's role, yet more cautious about any clear-cut “public knowledge” emerging from such technical projects.     

New forms of multi-local working: identifying multi-locality in planning as well as public and private organizations’ strategies in the Helsinki region

Over the last decades, there has been a significant development towards new forms of multi-locality, particularly for job-related reasons. In addition to offices, many can work in multiple places (such as the home, co-working spaces, coffee shops and public libraries). In addition to workers in start-ups and small entrepreneurs, who are traditionally known to be more mobile, white-collar workers employed by organizations are increasingly becoming multi-local. However, little is known about the ways in which multi-locality is addressed within the urban regions. This phenomenon has been studied at Aalto and NMBU University within the BEMINE research project by analysing recent policy and planning documents, as well as organizations’ strategies within the Helsinki region. In addition to a literature review, a qualitative analysis of planning documents was conducted as well as semi-structured interviews with five organizations (both private and public) in Finland employing mobile white-collars. The findings reveal that while policy-makers and city planners have not yet addressed the complexity of multi-locality, both private and public organizations are focusing on more concrete multi-local strategies and working practices. More dialogue is needed amongst policy-makers, city planners and organizations to address multi-locality at different levels of analysis and planning.     

Intelligence and Stalin's Two Crucial Decisions in the Winter War, 1939–40

In 1939–40, the fierce Winter War was waged between the Soviet Union and Finland. This article analyses Stalin's two main decisions, to attack and to make peace, and the intelligence behind those decisions. Already at the outbreak, it was obvious that the attack was based on a serious misjudgement. The Soviets did not foresee that the action would become a real war, very different from the occupation of eastern Poland in September. It will be shown that this was due more to Stalin's miscalculation of consequences than to any major failure of intelligence collection. As to why Stalin made peace at the very moment when the Red Army finally began winning, and with the Finnish government he had declared non-existent, this seems to be connected with defective assessment of intelligence from London and Paris. Even the Cambridge Five were discarded. Both real and perceived threats of Allied intervention weighed heavily in Stalin's decisions, in particular the southern threat against Baku and the Caucasus. The analysis will contribute to scholarly discussion on Stalin's foreign policy and the role of intelligence in Soviet decision-making. New evidence is mainly provided by intelligence and security documents released by the Central Archives of the Russian Federal Security Service.