23.12.2008

Historical research strengthens our understanding of the present

"Our time needs self-confident historians, who can problematise prevailing social and economic theories and viewpoints," says FiDiPro Professor Bo Stråth, an expert in European history. Stråth is convinced that historical research can also strengthen our understanding of the present day.

"For a long time, historical research has been underestimated. However, history is just what we desperately need to understand complex economic, political and social development trends. Social structures and market development are often seen as natural forces, not as fragile social constructions. In order to correct and adjust prevailing theories, we need historical researchers."

Stråth, who works as Finland Distinguished Professor (FiDiPro) at the Renvall Institute at the University of Helsinki, is one of the most renowned researchers of European history. In particular, the Swedish professor is a distinguished developer of the theory of modern European history.

He has created new approaches to the research of today’s social, political and economic development. Typical of his work is an inter- and multi-disciplinary approach to research. In his historical research, Stråth combines international law and political research, economic theories and social sciences.

"The understanding of complex historical development paths and phenomena requires an interdisciplinary approach to research," he says. 

Bo Stråth moved to Finland from the European University Institute in Florence. In his present office near Senate Square, in one of Helsinki’s oldest quarters, he is managing two extensive research projects. One of these projects aims to conceptualise world history in a new way, and the other to research Europe between 1815 and 1914, from the Congress of Vienna to the start of the First World War. For the latter project, Stråth and his co-director Academy Professor Martti Koskenniemi received significant research funding this autumn from the European Research Council (ERC). 

According to Stråth, present-day Europe is difficult to understand unless you go back to the time of the Congress of Vienna and to the events of its subsequent years.

"In order to understand the development of European integration and modern European history, you have to look at the time before 1945."

The period between the Congress of Vienna and the outbreak of the First World War was characterised by social tensions, which are also familiar in present-day Europe. These are tensions that lie between geopolitical interests and the international law that regulates them, tensions between monarchic power and parliamentarism,  and tensions between social and economic interests.

"Tension between Europe’s global wielding of power and the international law that regulates it is also clearly evident today. In the same way, tension between social dimensions and the needs of economic growth and markets are also very prominent. This tension can also be seen, for example, in human inequality in the labour market and in the rise of protectionism."

Europe in a vulnerable state

Professor Stråth thinks that this autumn’s financial crisis and its effects on Europe show just how vulnerable our continent is.

"European integration, the big European Project, has been firmly marketed as a predestined, inevitable process, when in reality European history has always been a journey from one crisis to another."

"Europe is currently in a very unstable and vulnerable state. Europe is disoriented. We don’t know where we’re going, and we are trying to make decisions through 27 different voices," he explains.

According to Stråth, the building of the EU set out from the premise that integration and the opening up of the markets would improve European competitiveness. The nation-states have been left with the responsibility to look after the social dimension.  Since the EU has expanded, social inequalities between its different member states have increased. This increases tension within the EU.

"Europe’s indecisiveness and fragmentation makes it vulnerable, which might subject it to movements such as nationalism, protectionism and populism. It was naïve to think that integration could be brought about by simultaneously expanding and deepening it."

Text: Riitta Tirronen
Photo: Olli Häkämies

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