ABSTRACT
Tampere has like many of its European counterparts experienced a painful decline of its textile and mechanical engineering industries and a slow transformation into an international hub of ICT and creative industries. In Finland this transformation was particularly drastic since the country relied heavily on foreign trade with the Soviet Union – a special kind of bilateral trade that was not easily transferable to other market areas – that took a dramatic downward turn and in fact came to a complete halt with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The coinciding and rather uncontrollable deregulation of the banking sector added to the misery of Finnish companies and entrepreneurs, leading to many difficulties, such as bankruptcies, reorganizations, record high unemployment rates and other human suffering.
