Table 10 below gives an overall view of current legislation, which addresses directly cultural policy issues or indirectly shapes them. The left hand column lists acts and also their most relevant recent amendments, which, in a way, tell the history of debates and objectives after they have become enacted as legislation. The comments in the right hand column summarise the content and cultural policy relevance of the listed legislative act. The code numbers of the acts link them to Finlex, the database / information system of Finnish legislation. Table 10 in toto demonstrates the supremacy of Parliament as the final... read more →
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If you are not happy with the results below please do another searchThe Swedish-speaking Finnish population is not only a national minority. The basic ideology of nation-building stipulates that Finland has two parallel cultures, one based on the Swedish-language and the other on the Finnish-language. The rights of the Swedish-speaking population are guaranteed in the newly re-codified Finnish Constitution (1999) and further enacted by a special Language Act, which, together with some special laws, provides for equality for official (administrative, court) use of the native language and access to education and public careers. The new Language Act was passed in 2003 and was enforced from the beginning of 2004; it does not... read more →
There are no legislation or special administrative arrangements that would offer incentives for business sponsorship. On the other hand, income taxation legislation (Income Tax Act, paragraph 57, amended in 2007) offers tax deductions for donations. More specifically corporate actors (not a private individual) can deduct: a minimum of 850 EUR and a maximum of 250 000 EUR donation to promote art or science or to support the protection of the cultural heritage; the deduction limits are the same where the receiver is another EEA state, publicly supported university or other institute of higher education or a fund linked to either of... read more →
Although the flows of immigrants and refugees accelerated in the 1990s, Finland is culturally and linguistically still a very homogeneous country. The share of the Finnish- and Swedish-speaking Finns is still somewhat above 97% and the share of foreign language speakers is thus below 3%. Even the share of Swedish-speakers is only around 5.5-5.7%, and the number of people belonging to other traditional minorities is small: the total number of the speakers of Sami languages, Roma people, Tatars and Jews add up to some 22 000 -24 000 people. A similar homogeneity prevails to religion: 84.6% of Finns belong to the Lutheran... read more →
Constitutionally protected and historical minorities in Finland consist of the following categories: Constitutionally protected minorities and indigenous people (see chapter 4.1.1): Swedish-speaking Finns ("second national culture"); 290 000 persons;The Sámi-people as a conglomerate of cultural communities 7 000 persons(of this: speakers of the Sámi languages 1 700 persons). Historical minorities: Roma 13 000 persons;Russians of "old origin", whose families settled in Finland during the Czarist rule 5 000 persons;Tatars 850 persons; andJews 1 500 persons. These figures indicate that Finland has been a relatively homogeneous country; especially as Swedish-speaking Finns are not constitutionally considered a minority but innate Finns having a second national culture, which is... read more →
The "culture industries" were not, until late 1990s, been a central concept in Finnish cultural policies, which have, by and large, focused on the arts, heritage issues, cultural services, cultural participation and access to culture. This is reflected in the financing figures: only the press, radio- and television, film production and distribution and, to a minor extent, also book publishing, have special outlays in the state budget and their appropriations are close to nil in the municipal / city budgets. Architecture and design have been subsidised as artforms, and the performing arts are considered a part of cultural services and... read more →
The main focus in the last few years in the Finnish heritage field and national cultural heritage policies has been the ratification processes and the implementation of international heritage conventions, namely Unesco Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Council of Europe Faro Convention on the Value of Heritage for Society and the Unesco World Heritage Convention. The other main issue has to do with the digitalisation of cultural heritage, with great leaps happening in 2016. The last three years have also been a time of strategic policy development in the field of cultural heritage and cultural environment,... read more →
As was discussed in chapter 1.2.6, the current government (2015-2019) programme’s main cultural policy priority (so called key project) addresses facilitating access to and participation in arts and culture, especially for children and young people. The two main strands of policy are children’s culture and the basic arts education and expanding the one percent rule to the social welfare and healthcare sector. The objective of supporting children’s access to culture is to incorporate it into children’s daily lives, support the creativity of children and young people, and make art and culture easily accessible to all. Cooperation will be expanded between... read more →
There are no general programmes, strategies or debate forums aimed at enhancing intercultural dialogue. Ethnic cultural relations and the establishment and maintenance of intercultural dialogue have been left, by and large, to cities, educational planners and schools. The Finnish case studies illustrate how Helsinki has enhanced multicultural dialogue. The importance of the EU Structural Funds and INTERREG programmes are mentioned in chapter 1.4.3. The following cases provide further evidence of their importance in developing cross-border intercultural dialogue. The case of the Calotte Academy illustrates the participation of Finnish researchers in cross-border intercultural dialogue. The Calotte Academy is a travelling symposium,... read more →
In the Finnish political system, the plenary sessions of the government (Council of State) and its standing committees and working groups have a strong role in controlling and guiding individual ministries and in co-ordinating their work. Inter-sectoral co-ordination has been perceived as an important issue, but few institutional mechanisms to maintain it have been introduced. Finnish EU-membership has also brought forth a need for inter-ministerial co-ordination. There is a special Committee of Ministers for the co-ordination of EU-affairs and, on the top civil servant level, an Inter-Ministerial Committee of EU-Affairs, with a number of sector specific preparative sub-committees, among them... read more →