Drawing on contemporary and historical case studies from Finland, Sweden and Norway, Progress or Perish highlights the roles that art, culture and academic research play alongside technology and economics as bearers of change, approaching the study of progress from the human level. By turning attention towards communities and the everyday social activities of individuals in their socio-cultural and microhistorical contexts, this volume links the idea of progress to the emancipation and empowerment of collectives. Multidisciplinary in nature, Progress or Perish brings together the work of leading scholars to explore the changes that individual and social agency can effect. It engages with the wider theoretical and methodological debates to be of key interest to sociologists, geographers and anthropologists, as well as those with interests in gender studies, cultural and environmental history, literary studies and political science.

Chapter 1 Introduction, Aini Linjakumpu, Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo; Chapter 2 History as a Project of Progress? The North as a Focus of Attention, Marja Tuominen; Chapter 3 'Chapters' of Progress '" The Case of a Village Idiot, Pälvi Rantala; Chapter 4 Progress and Emotions in Lapland, Aini Linjakumpu; Chapter 5 Remembering and Forgetting the Second World War in Finland: The Politics of Memory in Online Discussions, Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo; Chapter 6 Narratives of Progress in the Politics of Urho Kekkonen and the Agrarian League, Petri Koikkalainen; Chapter 7 Northern Universities and the Changing Status of Minorities, Lars Elenius; Chapter 8 Slow Activism: Art in Progress in the North, Mirja Hiltunen; Chapter 9 From Emotional Memory to Active Awareness: Counter-Memory and Resistance in Torne Valley Finnish Literature, Riitta Kontio; Chapter 10 Women Behind the Camera in the Early Twentieth Century at the Arctic Circle: A Step Towards Independence, Mervi Autti; Chapter 11 Concluding Remarks, Aini Linjakumpu, Sandra Wallenius-Korkalo;