Thursday, July 9, 2015
H007 (28 rue des Saints-Pères)
Created in October 1988, the Committee for International Information (Kansainvälisen tiedottamisen neuvottelukunta, or KANTINE) came as the last of a series of Cold War efforts to centrally define an image of Finland fit for foreign consumption, and to establish the communication methods through which state authorities and their partners could use this image as an economic and political asset.
Established to deal with image policy, the committee quickly branched into reflections regarding the state of Finland and the desirable evolutions of its society: as the committee emphasized in its first meetings, the state of Finland itself had to be changed in order for Finland’s image to be rejuvenated.
KANTINE thus became an attempt to look at the future of Finnish society. First of all, it drew an image of best practices to sell abroad a modern image of Finland. More than that, it drew a picture of Finland’s ideal future, suggesting desirable changes and the role of Finland’s government in driving these changes. While KANTINE’s final report did not have an immediate effect, its main points gave a good idea of EU-Finland’s main talking points.
This presentation will shortly reflect on the future KANTINE envisaged for Finland, and peer into the composition of the committee to find out what groups and ideas the members represented. Beyond answering the question of what future KANTINE envisaged for Finland, the presentation will suggest whose image of the future KANTINE presented.
Established to deal with image policy, the committee quickly branched into reflections regarding the state of Finland and the desirable evolutions of its society: as the committee emphasized in its first meetings, the state of Finland itself had to be changed in order for Finland’s image to be rejuvenated.
KANTINE thus became an attempt to look at the future of Finnish society. First of all, it drew an image of best practices to sell abroad a modern image of Finland. More than that, it drew a picture of Finland’s ideal future, suggesting desirable changes and the role of Finland’s government in driving these changes. While KANTINE’s final report did not have an immediate effect, its main points gave a good idea of EU-Finland’s main talking points.
This presentation will shortly reflect on the future KANTINE envisaged for Finland, and peer into the composition of the committee to find out what groups and ideas the members represented. Beyond answering the question of what future KANTINE envisaged for Finland, the presentation will suggest whose image of the future KANTINE presented.
