Peoples & Things Tiia Sahrakorpi on a Use-Based History of Electricity in Finland
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Sep 1, 2025 Tiia Sahrakorpi, a Visiting Professor at Weber State University, delves into her book project, exploring the oral histories of electricity usage in Finland. She critiques conventional views on technology, highlighting personal narratives that reveal how energy adoption shapes daily life. The discussion spans renewable energy dynamics, emotional responses to nuclear power, and the historical perspectives of socialist women on electricity's affordability. Sahrakorpi emphasizes community resilience and the ethical responsibility of understanding indigenous connections to energy.
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Use-Based History Reveals Everyday Change
- Tiia Sahrakorpi frames her book as a citizen-centered history of Finnish electrification, focusing on ordinary people's experiences.
- She argues use-based histories reveal adoption and daily practices that system-level accounts miss.
Crisis Memory Varies By Place And Practice
- Oral histories showed many Finns did not feel the 1970s energy crisis deeply disrupted daily life.
- People often performed thriftiness and resilience, minimizing perceived crisis impacts.
How The Project Locations Were Chosen
- Tiia describes how she developed the project at Aalto University with engineering colleagues and chose three diverse Finnish locations.
- She picked hydropower, nuclear, and northern river systems to balance feasibility and topical relevance.
