Untitled - socium.ge

80 Pekka Himanen and Manuel Castellsentrepreneurialism to create economic growth. In fact, in the alternative case,this will become a trap: taxes will go up and decrease further entrepreneurialism.Ultimately, the lack of entrepreneurialism in public services results not onlyfrom the weak culture of innovation but also from the fact that there are nopositive incentives to create new ways of doing things. There are no rewardsfor public innovators for doing anything better.Finland in the Global NetworksAnother clear problem in the Finnish model is the asymmetrical connectionbetween local and global flows of talent and finance. While the Finnish economyis well connected to the global flows of financing, the same is not true forthe global flows of talent.Even if one might argue that, from a purely technological point of view,Finland is, as the leader in the mobile revolution, as interesting a place asSilicon Valley for technology innovators to come to change the world,Finland’s image is not even close to Silicon Valley’s. Finns often think that theweather, language barriers, and a northern location discourage immigration.This is clearly in contradiction with the worldwide experience of immigration.Immigrants, and particularly immigrant entrepreneurs, are ready to go whereveropportunities arise, thinking of themselves and of their children. The realityis that Finland has a very restrictive immigration policy that has put thegovernment at odds with companies in the high-technology sector, which havemuch need for foreign talent as they deplete the stock of top Finnish scientistsand engineers. In addition, surveys in Finland show a negative attitude towardforeigners in a sizable proportion of the population (Castells and Himanen,2002), thus undermining the chances of the Finnish network society becomingnetworked around the world: only 2.5 percent of Finland’s residents areforeigners or foreign-born, which is one of the lowest percentages among theadvanced economies.For Finland, the process of attraction is largely working in reverse, whichmeans that Finnish companies and talent are transferring their know-how tothe rest of the world by locating production elsewhere, for instance in theUnited States or in China, and by establishing a global network, connected tomultiple markets, while keeping a central node in Finland. Cultural identityand strong support from the Finnish government provide a good foundationfor this specific model of globalization. However, the model is sustainableonly as long as Finland continues to produce Finnish innovators who are willingto use their talent for industrial purposes and remain attached to Finland.The capacity of the Finnish state to generate loyalty to its culture and to itsnation is the necessary antidote to counter the centrifugal force embedded in