Global scene, natural resources and development problems in the periphery country Finland: some reflections on Ilmari Hustich's world view

• Main Author: Jussi Raumolin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Geographical Society of Finland 1981
• Subjects: Geography (General); G1-922; Arctic; Canada
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/3f89aefb3661409281a71d90adfa8ba0

Ilmari Hustich has been a kind of a prophet in the desert in the periphery country Finland. A short synopsis is given of his development ideas in the context of international development discussion during the ‘funda­mental’ years for Hustich's scientific activity from 1945 to 1961. According to Hustich, the spread of the U.S. industrial and consump­tion models put heavy pressure on natural resources both in Canada and in Finland. Man had become an important geologic factor in the Arctic, modifying nature at his will. New conservation measures were necessary for the wise use of natural resources. Hustich's preferences were for the simple peasant way of life of the periphery against industrialized con­sumption potlatches of the urbanized centre. The global process of industrialization and the growth of world trade led to an uniformisation of life styles and cultural patterns everywhere. Small nations with limited resource basis became more and more dependent on foreign supplies, foreign trade and on the whims of great powers. The idea of rationalistic econometric forecasting did not take into con­sideration the fact that there were such 'irrational' factors as religions, ideologies and nationalism still well alive. Development could not be measured by arbitrary economic indicators. Hustich was the pioneer of the studies in the field of both global and Finnish political geography in the after‑war Finland. He tried to place Finland in the Cold War geopolitical play and in the development perspective of the underdeveloped countries. His ideas are of considerable actuality in the runaway world of the seventies and the eighties.