Nordic Revival: Crafting Rural Development in Finnish and Norwegian Design Discourse

This chapter explores questions of power within emerging design practices in the 1960s and 1970s through two case studies: the Nord-Odal project in Norway and teaching activities of Finnish designer Harry Moilanen. These practices promoted a politically motivated craft revival that would participate in supporting rural regions and livelihoods in two increasingly, and recently, industrialised and urbanised countries. They also reflected a heritage from the global and local Arts and Crafts movements but, in doing so, engaged in a complex and problematic negotiation between ‘the centre’ and ‘the periphery’. While criticising the way power was asserted in their respective countries, Moilanen and the participants in the Nord-Odal project ended up imposing their own ideas and ideals about traditions worth preserving and lives worth living. These two case studies show how craft as social aid, imagined by professional designers, unravels questions of power, identity and agency.