The prize is awarded by the Finnish Book Foundation, and this year the final choice from the six books shortlisted for the prize was made by academician Georg von Wright . The book is based on a multidisciplinary research project which was carried out at the University of Helsinki in 1997 1998. Kantola led the project and wrote the chapters on economy and democracy. The depression brought mass unemployment which we are still fighting, even though the economy is booming, Anu Kantola reminds us. Long-term unemployment and the regional concentration of unemployment are problems in Finland.
Growth is centred in the Helsinki metropolitan area and a few other cities.
Widening gaps are a difficult problem in Finnish society, Kantola sums up. Earlier, wealth was fairly evenly distributed. This was mainly due to the fragmented ownership of our most important raw material, wood. Forests have traditionally been owned by farmers, not by big companies or estates. The widespread ownership of forests partly explains why the Finnish national economy has been relatively strong.