In Between Research Cultures – The State of Digital Humanities in Finland

Abstract

<div>Digital humanities (DH) as a research field has been developing rapidly in Finland during the past few years,</div><div>mainly due to increased funding and profiling activities. Although these infrastructural developments have</div><div>created (smaller and larger) centres, hubs and clusters related directly or indirectly to digital humanities, the</div><div>future of Finnish research in this area depends on how the various scholarly and memory organisations, as</div><div>well as individual scholars, succeed in joining forces. The overall argument in this paper is that digital huma-</div><div>nities needs to establish its identity and to create a new space among research cultures with varying charac-</div><div>teristics tackling a multitude of problems, and that this can only be achieved through national collaboration</div><div>and the joint exploitation of the strengths of existing DH hubs. The article sets out a roadmap to this end,</div><div>providing a detailed discussion of various developments in digital humanities, and analysing different possi-</div><div>bilities in the international context. It is based on a survey conducted in 2016 among Finnish scholars in the</div><div>fields of humanities and the social sciences, an analysis of existing infrastructures, and interviews with DH</div><div>scholars involved with international top-level DH centres. The focus in the latter part of the article is on the-</div><div>se interviews, and on the lessons learned abroad from which the Finnish DH community could benefit. We</div><div>conclude with a strong call for collaboration to facilitate the further development of the DH field in Finland</div><div>in response to international competition.</div><div><br /></div><div>Asiasanat: digital humanities; research infrastructures; digital research practices; Finland; data; collaboration;</div><div>open science<br /></div>