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Information Society and Consensus Formation in Finland

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Book cover National Strategies to Harness Information Technology

Part of the book series: Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management ((ITKM))

Abstract

Finland, a Nordic country bordering Russia and Sweden with a territory the size of Germany but a population of only 5.4 million in 2011, managed in the 1990s a high-profile breakthrough to the forefront of the international information society. The case of Finland is interesting for two reasons. First, Finland transformed itself in a short period from a resource-intensive economy into a knowledge economy very much driven by the information and communications sector. Second, this transformation coincided with a major economic crisis in the early 1990s. Recovery from a deep recession and major structural transformation took place simultaneously.

The main text of this chapter was completed in 2008 and has been only slightly altered to reflect this. A brief epilogue discusses some more recent developments, but the principal lessons of the Finnish experience remain the same.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/elearning/programme_en.html.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arlington, VA, USA

    Peter T. Knight

  2. Creative Industries Management, Helsinki, Finland

    Jorma Routti

Authors
  1. Peter T. Knight
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  2. Jorma Routti
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Correspondence to Peter T. Knight .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Marbury Road 5852, BETHESDA, 20817, Maryland, USA

    Nagy K. Hanna

  2. Arlington, 22203, Virginia, USA

    Peter T. Knight

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Knight, P.T., Routti, J. (2012). Information Society and Consensus Formation in Finland. In: Hanna, N., Knight, P. (eds) National Strategies to Harness Information Technology. Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2086-6_3

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