During the 1960s and early 1970s Finland experienced rural depopulation. By 1974, however, there were the first signs of a modest rural revival, which, in 1976, came to the attention of Lauri Hautamäki, now Professor at the University of Tampere in the Department of Regional Studies. He started a project of Action Research into this embryo movement, to evaluate the potential for revitalisation of rural communities.

The new ideas of the project (e.g. "concrete utopias") caught the public imagination. In less than ten years (1977-1985) the number of Village Committees rose from 50 to 2,000. During the 90's the growth has been slower and the number of committees has stabilised at about 3,000. The Village Committees cover more than two thirds of Finland's villages and initiate projects mainly in the areas of culture, leisure, communications, services, housing and economic development. They involve about 30,000 people directly and positively affect the lives of some 500,000 people.

The Village Committees are an expression of small-scale collective action over individualism. Communal facilities are emphasised or restored, as are public and social services, such as health, postal or transport services. One academic wrote in 1986: "Although village activity has achieved much that is of importance is in the change in people's attitudes. The former passivity and submissivity have given way to a new vigour, self-reliance and community spirit and to better awareness of opportunities for activities and assistance."

The Village Committees combine vitality and creativity, expressed in a very broad range of activities, with flexibility and efficiency of organisation, and evident knowledge of and love for their village, its culture and traditions and their natural environment. Their activities encompass the arts (music, drama, painting), crafts (both traditional and modern), economic development and the encouragement of entrepreneurship, sports, especially winter sports, and social events of all kinds, involving the whole village and generating a palpable enthusiasm and liveliness.

As the Village Committees grow in confidence and organising experience, they make new demands or take new initiatives. Since 1995 when Finland joined the European Union, the Village Committees have taken an active role in the execution of regional and rural policy (bottom-up development). The ability to cooperate with different authorities and experts has become very important for the villages. There is evidence that they have also revived and created a new cooperation between their more traditional organisations (farmers' organisations, trade union branches, youth societies, country women clubs etc.) and entrepreneurs. Household and farming extension services have also revived, especially, in the latter case, in the field of organic agriculture. One of the most important features of the movement in the 90's was the strengthening of the organisation at the provincial and national levels. By the end of the decade, the Finnish Village Action Movement could be described as a network of 3,000 independent local village committees, 12 regional associations of villages and a national association. All these groups and organisations are a further expression of the growing determination among rural people to preserve the dynamism, quality and variety of their lives against the continuing trends elsewhere of urbanisation, centralisation and loss of rural local control and self-reliance.

"We are not willing to regard economic values as more important than the quality of life. We believe in the right of people to decide over their own lives. We are particularly happy if our movement can be an encouraging example for rural people, demonstrating that vibrant village life is not inconsistent with development."
- Tapio Mattlar (Village Activist)

Contact Details:
Tapio Mattlar
Vuorenkyläntie 2249
FI -19850 Putkijärvi
FINLAND

National association for supporting the Finnish Village Action Movement:
Suomen Kylätoiminta ry.
Willa Elsa, Meijeritie 2
FI - 25410 Suomusjärvi
FINLAND
www.vuorenk.pp.fi/tapio
www.kylatoiminta.fi