The Political Economy of the Finnish Forest Industries
(2002–2008)
Big Business, Small Nation: The Political Economy of the Finnish Forest Industries was a research project supervised by Markku Kuisma, Professor of Finnish and Nordic History at the Department of History, University of Helsinki. The research team consisted of
- Kai Häggman, Docent of Finnish and Scandinavian History, Department of History
- Niklas Jensen-Eriksen, Ph.D., Department of History
- Juhana Aunesluoma, DPhil, Lecturer of Contemporary History, Department of Social Science History.
The Finnish Literature Society published the findings of the project as a series of books (2006–2008).
The aim of the project was to examine the formation and growth of the large industrial corporations of a small economy. The Finnish case of forest-based development is of special interest in this respect. The backwardness of the Finnish economy did not lead to further peripheralization of the country. Despite her relatively poor starting conditions, Finland was able to catch up with the European forerunners of industrial development. As a result of this transformation process, the Finnish forest companies, which in the beginning of the 20th century had been small compared to the giants, have become leading paper producers in the world.
The project studied the historical origins and characteristics of the Finnish case. We analysed the interaction between the forest companies and economic, political, technological and social forces in both a national and international context.