Inventing Europe results discussed in Finland

3 November 2011

On October 28, 2011 a panel met in Helsinki to present and discuss results from the ESF Inventing Europe research program (2006-2010). Three Finnish panelists (Kimmo Antila, Karl-Erik Michelsen and Petri Paju) and an Italian researcher who works in Helsinki (Valentina Fava) shortly presented their personal experiences of the program. The idea was to cover different research groups in the program and show the cooperation and results from various, although Finland-based, perspectives. The presented groups or perspectives were EUROCRIT (Michelsen), SOFT-EU (Paju), museum cooperation and the Virtual Exhibit (Antila), and East-West relations (Fava). The GIS project of the absent Finnish team in Oulu was presented too.

Partly in response to questions from the audience, the panelists discussed the transition from national to transnational perspectives in writing history and the ideological connections of a European agenda inherent in the program. Besides that, the future events and possibilities of contributing to future developments in the Tensions of Europe network were discussed. In a more critical sense, some panelists hoped for more transparency in how the program and network decides things. The audience consisted of about fifteen persons (mostly researchers). The event also got a wide circulation in email lists, the journal Tekniikan Waiheita (the Finnish Quarterly for the History of Technology), and in a central website, so the goals of sharing experiences and disseminating information on the program's results in Finland were achieved.

The panel was organized by the Finnish Society for the History of Technology which promotes history of technology in Finland and also makes Finnish research known abroad.

Reported by Petri Paju