Mobile ideas of economic science: the coming of Keynes’s general theory to Finland

Abstract

This article examines the geographical dimensions of the arrival and reception of Keynes’s economic ideas in Finland from the late 1930s onwards. Specifically, the study focuses on how Keynes’s 1936 book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money found its way to Finland, how was it received and interpreted. Although the reception of Keynes’s ideas has been studied in various national contexts, Finland has received comparatively little attention. This article addresses that gap while also developing a theoretical framework for analysing the mobility of scientific ideas geographically. It brings the historical geography of science into conversation with policy mobility literature and adapts three concepts: scientific site, translation and assemblage. Furthermore, the article presents spatially informed narrative explanation and comparative content analysis as methods to meet the demands of the presented theoretical framework. Empirically, it examines the sites of economic science in Finland, focusing on their institutional settings, key actors, and knowledge practices. It also situates these sites within broader regional contexts, demonstrating how interpretations of Keynes’s theory were shaped by specific intellectual traditions, institutional structures, and historically contingent conditions thus producing a unique assemblage through a specific translation process. By comparing interpretations of Keynes’s book in Finland to those in the United Kingdom (Cambridge Keynesian) and Sweden (Stockholm School of Economics), the study highlights the specificities of the Finnish engagement with Keynes’s economic ideas.