15 March 2024: Finnish regional cultural administration needs development (Renko)
The Finnish regional organisations’ possibilities to develop regional cultural policy are complicated by blurred administrative borders, dispersed national direction, and the lack of coordination and collaborative structures. The regional administration in Finland is subject to continuous reforms, and in cultural policy, regions face a range of often contradictory expectations.
Renko’s study shows that the Finnish regional cultural administration has not been built up comprehensively, systematically, or following clear regional divisions. Unlike in Sweden, cultural policy authority in Finland has mainly been redistributed within state regional administration. In the Finnish regional cultural policy model, the regional level has mainly been assigned public authority and responsibilities. The object of regional decentralisation has mainly been administrative, whereas in Sweden, political and fiscal decentralisation have also been implemented.
Undefined role of regions
“In Finland, the role of regions in cultural policy has not been clearly defined,” Renko notes, “yet regional cultural administration has nevertheless been continuously constructed and reconstructed. In this regard, the situation is very different from Sweden, where a long-standing political debate was followed by the creation of a regional cultural policy model around the turn of the 2010s.”
The Finnish regional cultural administration currently includes four organisations: the regional councils; the Regional State Administrative Agencies; the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment; and the regional offices and arts councils of the Arts Promotion Centre Finland.
All these organisations have statutory cultural policy responsibilities. The organisations have different geographical areas of operation and approach culture from different perspectives, which complicates the construction of regional cultural policy.
Public officials highlight cooperation and coordination
According to the research, public officials in regional cultural administration consider cooperation and coordination to be key activities in regional cultural administration.
"However, in practice, regional cultural policy coordination has not been assigned to any organisation,” Renko says, “and there is no collaborative structure in regional cultural administration. Clarifying the regional cultural administration’s operational areas and responsibilities as well as establishing a structure for collaborating with arts and cultural actors in the region would enhance the regional level’s legitimacy in cultural policymaking.”
The results of the study can be utilised in the development of regional cultural administration. For arts and cultural actors in the regions, the dissertation provides tools to better understand the structures of cultural regional administration and operate within them.
The research has been funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation and the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the Ģֱ.
Vappu Renko’s (MSSc, MA) defence of her doctoral dissertation “Making regional cultural policy possible: Construction and practices in Finland contrasted to Sweden” will take place on Friday, 15 March 2024, at 12 p.m. in hall C4. Senior Lecturer Katja Lindqvist (University of Lund) will serve as the opponent, and Professor Mikko Jakonen as the custos.
Link to publication
Background information:
Vappu Renko works as a researcher at the Cultural Policy Research Center Cupore. Her current research focuses on local and regional cultural activities, arts and artist policies as well as on cultural administration, structures, and funding in Finland. Renko is particularly interested in Nordic comparisons.
Before joining Cupore, Renko has conducted research in the development project of municipal cultural activities at the Ģֱ and worked in administrative, production, and coordination roles in several organisations in cultural domain. Renko holds a Master of Social Sciences (Political Science) from the University of Turku and a Master of Arts (Art History) from the University of Helsinki. She serves as the co-editor of the Finnish Cultural Policy Research Yearbook and chairs the steering group of Kulturanalys Norden.
