Revitalizing the Successful Past in the North: Narratives of Change in the Peripheral Post-Industrial City of Kajaani, Finland

Abstract

Finding a new destination for declining industrial communities is a common European trend, wherein local, national and EU interests are intertwined and sometimes contested. New meaning is sought, among other things, in economics, political activity, and images of the past. This article analyzes local development narratives in the case of the “northern periphery”. This paper highlights how the shrinking town of Kajaani, Finland, reacts to the state’s changing role in regional industrial strategies by comparing different local interpretations of future expectations. The research material comprises interviews, city strategies, and editorials from a local newspaper. This paper suggests that the previously dominant narrative of decentralization still holds sway in the minds of the local advocates. However, it is flavored by the narrative of the knowledge-based economy forming three interrelated local narratives: the narrative of the small town; the narrative of closure; and the narrative of traction. The analysis shows that a northern model city of former industrial policy is seeking to reform and develop its original strengths. However, strong links to previous doctrines of state regional policy still frame the potential of local interpretations and make them specifically Nordic development narratives.