The “Marshall Aid of Ideas” and the Post-War Finnish Social Sciences

Jukka Kortti, University of Helsinki

After the First World War, America appeared not only as the world’s futuristic social laboratory, but also, increasingly, as a vanguard of modern social science. Hitler’s seizure of power greatly accelerated the process of transatlantic integration and the United States took the leading role in the field of the social sciences after the Second World War. This American led “internationalization” of the social sciences became an integral element of the Cold War battle for European souls and minds. Although Finland was the only western country participating in the Second World War, which did not receive the post-war Marshall Plan Aid package, Finland received instead “the Marshall Aid of ideas”. One of its major realizations were the Rockefeller, Ford and especially Fulbright grants that Finnish scientists utilized in the post-Second World era. They regularly visited the American top universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Chicago and Columbia. At the same time, social scientist became the leading scholars in the Finnish, exceptionally rapid modernization process, as well as in the Finnish public sphere. Among other things, the American influence significantly promoted the adapting of empiricist, positivist methodologies studying society in Finland. In my presentation, I will depict how all this manifested in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, which was established right after the Second Word War. I am particularly interested in showing how the visiting periods of Finnish social scientist to American universities effected in the shaping and developing the old as well as new disciplines and departments. The presentation is based on my project on the history of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 63. Social Science History and Science & Technology Studies: A Theoretical Exchange