Gothenburg in Sweden once boasted the world's largest shipyards, but in the face of Japanese and Korean competition, the oil crisis and a world economic downturn, the city was brought to its knees in the 1980s, with 5 kms of empty dockland and 20 thousand people without jobs. So far, so very like the Clyde.

But though shipbuilding was down, Gothenburg was not out.

The City Council bought the empty shipyards for one Swedish krona – that’s 2 pence - financed new house-building, new secondary schools and linked up with Chalmers University to set up Lindholmen Science Park. It attracted the Swedish mobile phone maker, Ericsson who created a cluster of ten thousand people in other IT companies around its new HQ. This inter-dependency helped the sector survive the dot.com crash.

The biggest advance though, followed the biggest setback, when Sweden’s innovation agency, rejected a big bid for an open research area at Lindholmen. Undaunted, the Science Park owners (council and business) went ahead without state funds, seconding thirty people for one year to fine tune their plans.

Now, 375 companies operate on dockland that wasn’t worth tuppence thirty years ago, Gothenburg has become Sweden's R&D capital and more people are employed today in tech jobs on the docklands than ever worked in the shipyards. Local car-maker Volvo is planning to go fully electric by 2030 and 100 billion Euros is being invested to connect both banks of the river. As the city shapes up to celebrate its 400th anniversary this year, recalling the part played by Scots in its phenomenal success, the excitement is almost palpable.

Nordic Horizons Director Lesley Riddoch visited the city in May 2023 to find out how Gothenburg has turned itself around.
More info https://goteborgco.se

Thanks to

Christian Borg of Business Region Gothenburg

Jonas Eriksson Head of Gothenburg Green City zone

Jessica Vialleton, Hotel Eggers

Hjördis Fohrman, Jonsered Museum

Stepping up Sustainability West Sweden

Eva Lehman Goteborg.com

Finland has a particular source of propaganda to deal with in the shape of Russia. Misinformation attacks have focused on familiar issues like immigration and the EU, but also Finland’s application to join NATO. Now the Finns have devised a strategy to teach all social groups to spot fake news and fact-check. This includes lessons in community colleges, digital literacy toolkits and a critical thinking curriculum in schools. As a result, online interference by Russia in Finnish politics appears to have waned.

Now other countries are looking to learn from Finland’s strategy.

Jussi Toivanen is a former adviser to the Finnish PM on media literacy and was recently appointed Head of Communications at Finland’s National Cyber Security Centre. He believes the country’s cyber security success is due to something deeper; it is a cohesive ‘superpower’ - a society with high levels of trust in institutions and the media, plus a strong sense of identity rooted in human rights and the rule of law. He offers an unexpected insight – ‘the first line of cyber defence is the Kindergarten teacher’…

We also hear from Chris Silver – a researcher and PhD student on memory and the Scottish press - and Claire Elazebbi, a member of the Scottish Government's cyber security team.

Finland has a 1300 km long land border with Russia, it fought two wars in the 1940s to defend then reclaim lost territory, and is now applying to join NATO.

There, most knowledge of Finland ends.
Which is a shame.

Because a staple of Finnish life could offer a permanent solution to supply crises in Britain – if we could learn to rely on cooperatives not corporations to deliver.
The picture shows composite wooden hand-basins and baths - a unique feature of the Solo Sokos Hotel in Lahti- part of a larger S-Group cooperative with more than 3 million members. How can such a massive coop give its local hotel managers freedom to make their own decisions? Lesley Riddoch went to Finland's seventh largest city to find out.
With thanks to Risto Turanen, Kari Huhtala, VisitFinland, Finnair and Sokos Hotels.