Browsing by Subject "green economy"

The aim of this thesis is to explore how the Finnish state has adopted knowledge branding as a way to improve Finland’s competitiveness during the 21st century, and simultaneously examine what contesting imaginaries of competitiveness are underlying its work due to challenges posed by climate change. In policy spheres, knowledge branding refers to the act of knowledge being packaged into saleable and user-friendly “toolkits”, i.e. knowledge brands, by renowned consultants, policy experts and academics. These knowledge brands are manifested through international ranking institutions, which are assessing countries according to various performance areas. This has only enhanced the global competition between nations. Today, the long predominance of market-liberal imaginaries around globalization, competitiveness and the knowledge-based economy has been seriously contested due to the climate crisis demanding a greener economy. These green ideas have translated into new knowledge brands such as ’sustainability’, ’carbon neutrality’ and ‘circular economy’. However, despite the apparent clash of two contradictory sets of beliefs, capitalist growth aims have continued to thrive, showing flexible adaptation in the form of hybridization. As a result we see phenomena such as climate capitalism, carbon compensation and carbon trading. Since I find that the CPE field lacks a collective notion describing different degrees of such hybridization of ideas, I introduce the concept of ‘hybrid imaginary’ to denote the dynamic alignment of traditional capitalist, consumerist ideas with the more altruistic worldview of global responsibility and environmental sustainability. Theoretically, I support myself on the cultural political economy (CPE) approach, which regards imaginaries as necessary for us to be able to structure and make sense of the complexity of the world. More recently, CPE has explored the adoption of knowledge brands in public policy spheres. Considering the fact that Finland, branding itself as “A land of solutions”, has received much positive attention in recent years due to its success in international rankings, and today also aspires to be the world’s first fossil-fuel free country by 2035, I find my home country to be an interesting case to examine in terms of increased use of knowledge branding in the state sector. Methodologically, I approach this topic by conducting a combined qualitative content and discourse analysis on the fairly new state operator Business Finland and its predecessor Finpro (1999-2017). The operator promotes Finnish competitiveness in the fields of internationalization of enterprises, investments and the travel industry by the help of its huge network of consultants, thus making it fit for knowledge branding. Hence, my research question is as follows: “How has Business Finland adopted knowledge branding as a way to improve Finland's competitiveness during the 21st century and what contesting imaginaries of competitiveness are underlying its work?”. The analysis consists of three dimensions: 1) organizational reforms during the 21st century enabling knowledge branding; 2) nation branding as an example of a knowledge brand applied by the travel promotion unit Visit Finland; and 3) Business Finland’s use of hybrid imaginaries in response to the climate crisis. The results of the analysis show that Business Finland has become increasingly dynamic in response to global pressure, while the operator’s current focus on climate innovations shows how ‘responsibility’ and ‘sustainability’ are treated as competitive factors. Thus, my main conclusive argument is that when environmental values are utilised for national competitiveness purposes, their morally good nature may become distorted. This observation resonates with the fact that sustainability and responsibility have become performances measured through global indexes. So, paradoxically, the good intentions of government strategies for mitigating climate change are in danger of being held back due to the excessive focus on individual performance, instead of finding ways to join forces for more collaborative transnational efforts. Ultimately, hybrid imaginaries in combination with an increased commercialization of knowledge raises concerns for the long-term effects on our human ability to imagine alternative futures in writing the narrative of climate change.

This master’s thesis study examines the participation of Finnish civil society actors in the preparations for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, commonly referred to as Rio+20. The summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The study is situated in the discussions about the limits and carrying capacity of the global environment and their relation to societal development and economic growth. These so-called 'pillars' of sustainable development (ecological, social and economic) have been a central focus of both non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as the United Nations from the 1970s onwards. Civil society has been posited as a crucial part of reaching sustainability. From these starting points, this study asks (1) who were the participants of the preparatory process, (2) what agendas did they promote and (3) how did it turn out in the context of the outcomes of the summit. Four different sets of data were used in this study. First, record and memos of the Environment and development group (Ympäristö ja kehitys työryhmä), which was a central working group for NGO cooperation, were used to analyze the structuring of the Finnish NGO group. The records span from 2011 to September 2012. Second, the Earth Negotiation Bulletins, a daily coverage of the negotiations, published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IIISD), were used to gain knowledge about the official inter-state negotiations. Third, five semi-structured interviews with key civil society actors representing Finnish NGOs were used. And last, notes and recording on six Rio+20 themed seminars were used to gain knowledge about the agendas of the NGOs as well as Finnish government officials, as well as the progression of the preparations. The theoretical framework is Laurent Thévenot´s sociology of engagements which focuses on disputes and the construction of commonality. The theory, combined with means of content analysis, is used to answer the above-mentioned research questions. The preparatory process mobilized a group of key actives from established Finnish associations, which were focused on developmental and environmental issues. The discussions on green economy and agendas the NGOs promoted continued from the division between the countries of the global north and the global south, and from the opposition of environmental limits and development. The NGOs constructed their agenda on the dual basis of both ecological limits and a human right-based approach to global inequality, which was then used to criticize economic growth. Analysis of the outcomes of the summit suggests a rejection of these claims. The results support a strong agenda geared towards poverty eradication, development and growth in the global south. The issue of green economy was tied to them. The findings of this study therefore present both continuations of old disputes as well as new developments. Debates in the summit preparations were locked in familiar settings, most clearly in the north-south divide, but the outcomes of the summit on the other hand suggest changes in the status of different actors situated in this division. The study concludes that for the actors engaged in sustainable development, and more specifically on global environmental problems, need to reconsider their agendas in accordance to this new constellation of actors, which emphasize the role of the developing countries.