Timo Hämäläinen, research director at Sitra, gave a talk in yesterday's class that may have been the best presentation that I've heard in Finland. It probably was the best presentation that I've heard in a year.
Clearly, he has depth on the subject of social innovation, based on his 2003 book on National Competitiveness and Economic Growth. I was impressed by his reading of Karl Marx on technological determinism, because the mention of Karl Marx tends to turn off North American audiences. (Timo said that Marx's ideas on communism didn't work out, but the ideas on technological determinism have proved to be useful and durable.)
In addition to describing a detailed framework towards a social innovation policy for Finland, he outlined a review of Europe in the Golden Age, a recently published book by Anthony Giddens. Unfortunately, Timo said that his review was written only in Finnish. (I'd like to see it in English).
The slides are attached below, but it was a lot easier to learn from Timo's talk. (It's too bad that I didn't bring a recorder!)
