Remarks on rural co-operation in Finland
Written by Kalle Pakkala on March 30, 2009.Historically, informal co-operative practices have a long tradition in rural Finland, extending from mutual help in vocational activities to the needs of everyday life, caring of roads, herding cattle, owning jointly village meeting places, using agricultural machinery, sharing catch or bag etc.
The early modern social economy in the Finnish countryside was based and built on these formally or informally organised activities of the village civil society. The establishment and rapid diffusion of rural co-operatives in the beginning of the 20th century was made possible by the simultaneous and parallel interests of numerous peasants’ associations and other rural civil society activities, important for the Finnish identity and nation building of that time.
Donations, volunteer work and talkoot (Finnish name for mutual self-help of community people) are still practical resources in the development of rural local communities. Many charitable organisations and nonprofit associations, running economically considerable operations, are very familiar with the rules of the untypical markets with low or zero profitability demands. To recognise their activities as part of a larger whole may, however, open the eyes to wider networks and co-operation with other organisations.
In Finland, village activity movement has been the most important activator of local, regional and national networks of civil society actors in rural development. New dimensions for these networks are initiatives to develop rural resources to enterprise-type organisations. This may bring essential added value economically for the promotion of rural development contract -type programmes. Networks of the social economy are important ways to exchange experiences and disseminate innovative practices of creating solutions to entrepreneurial activities and employment.
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