Dissent, humour, and acceptance: exploring rural emotions about technological change in England and Finland, 1890s-1920s

Technological change at the dawn of the twentieth century was often rapid, with new technologies impacting both rural and urban areas. By taking a comparative approach to analysing technological change in the rural, this article compares emotional navigation in rural England and Finland using essay competitions collected between 1958 and 1964. The main findings illustrate how agricultural mechanization, milk-cream separators, and cars were highly contentious in Finland, whilst English writers comment on new machinery generally positively. Only the arrival of the car created tension in some writers, especially for women. Technological changes impacted genders and social classes differently. As the sources show, communities supported one another, but also created silences, sang songs, and told stories to exert control over who could benefit from what technology.