<p>‘The book aims to open up and provide a new interpretation to the black box of the East-West trade during the Cold War by using the Finnish shipbuilding industry as a case study. By means of examining procedures and practices provided by archival sources, the author attempts to explain how a small peripheral country like Finland could develop into a noteworthy shipbuilding country and industrialise fairly quickly in the postwar period. The author’s approach is both innovative and illuminating for readers who are not yet experts in the East-West trade.’</p><p>Timo Myllyntaus, <i>Turku School of Economics, Finland</i></p><p>‘An ambitious, elegant, and enjoyable analysis of how an industry and a small state successfully navigate through the muddy waters of the Cold War.’</p><p>Maiju Wuokko, <i>University of Turku, Finland</i></p><p><em>"</em>I recommend Matala’s book for anyone with an interest in the dynamics between politics, technology, and business during the Cold War."</p><p><strong>RENÉ TAUDAL POULSEN</strong>, <em>Technology & Culture</em></p>
This monograph explores the economic consequences of the Cold War, a polarised world order which politicised technology and shaped industrial development. It provides a detailed archival-based history of the Finnish shipbuilding industry (1952–1996), which f lourished, thanks to the special relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union. Overall, it shows how a small country, Finland, gained power during the Cold War through international economic and technological cooperation. The work places Finland in a firmly international context and assesses the state–industry relationship from five different angles: technopolitics, trade infrastructure, techno-scientific cooperation, industrial reorganisation, and state aid. It presents a novel way to analyse industrialisation as an interaction between institutional stabilisation and f luctuation within a techno-economic system. In so doing, it makes empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions to the history of industrial change. A History of Cold War Industrialisation will be of interest to advanced students and scholars in economic history, maritime history, Cold War history, and international political economy.
1 Introduction. 2 Before the Cold War shipbuilding. 3 Technology diplomacy: civilian ships carrying political weight and state leaders. 4 Institutional interface to the Soviet market: bilateral trade and Finnish shipbuilding. 5 Beyond business as usual: techno-scientific and industrial cooperation. 6 From consensus to competition: reorganisation and rationalisation in shipbuilding. 7 National competitiveness and international economy: shipyard financing and state aid. 8 Conclusions
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Saara Matala is Post-doctoral Fellow in the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.