Emerging vacuums of strategic planning: an exploration of reforms in Finnish spatial planning

The paper offers a theory-based evaluation of the ongoing reforms in the Finnish spatial planning regime. The paper argues that Finnish planning is moving in a reactive and market-driven direction. This development is not being brought about solely through a direct decrease in public discretionary powers in planning, but is also unfolding indirectly through a process of rescaling in the spatial planning regime. These processes increase municipal autonomy in relation to other planning scales, despite problems observed in the municipality-centred market-driven planning orientation. The resulting reduction in manoeuvring room in public planning is conceptualized in the paper as expanding vacuums of strategic planning. Building on concepts from the literature on state transformation theory and scale theory, the paper draws together theoretical and empirical conclusions from several case studies conducted in close-to-administration projects.     

The Tide of History

Two stories are told simultaneously: one that may have been, and one that yet might be. The story of the voyage that might have been is based on archaeological evidence provided by the earliest shipwreck discovered in the New World. These two stories are set in different eras to demonstrate certain constants in the human drive to explore the unknown, in the methods used, and in the consequences encountered.     

Linking Technology Foresight and Regional Innovation Activities: Network Facilitating Innovation Policy in Lahti Region,Finland

During recent years a growing body of literature has been published on regional innovation systems and regional foresight activities. However, not so much attention has been paid on modelling the connection between these two areas of research. This article proposes a model on how to use results of regional technology foresight in generating practical innovation processes in a region with mainly synthetic knowledge infrastructures. The model draws upon practical experiences from Lahti region, Finland, where the concept of network facilitating innovation policy has been adopted as part of the regional development strategy.     

Contradictions of Spatial Governance: Bioeconomy and the Management of State Space in Finland

In recent years, the bioeconomy has emerged as a key policy idea in liberal western states. This paper analyses the bioeconomy as a state strategy. By building on theoretical strands by Poulantzas, Moore, and Castán Broto, the paper argues that the bioeconomy has to be understood simultaneously as an accumulation strategy within the capitalist world‐ecology and as a transformative agenda through which tensions in the state space can be governed. The politics of bioeconomy do not concern its outright endorsement or rejection but the ways its contradictions are interpreted and articulated. The empirical part of the paper scrutinises the bioeconomy strategy adopted in Finland. Our main concern is that the bioeconomy strategy has been appropriated by the traditional forest industries in such a way that fails to address the problem of uneven development and ignores the potential of the bioeconomy as part of a transformative agenda.