Paper short abstract:

Drawing from a recent ethnography carried out in the Western Alps of Italy, the contribution will intersect the ecological space with the contemporary spatial re-appropriation through the means of food of different genres of migrants, namely Italian urban dwellers and refugees.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing from a recent ethnography carried out in the Western Alps of Italy, the contribution will intersect the ecological space -its' gastronomic history marked by a switch from being a hinge between Italy and France (receiving, exchanging, spreading and taming staples) to being a peripheral barrier as a consequence of a city-centered modern gaze triggering a heavy depopulation in the mid XX century, with the contemporary spatial re-appropriation through the means of food of different genres of migrants, namely Italian urban dwellers and refugees. If these last, relocated in highlands' extraordinary reception centers (C.A.S.) after disembarking in Lampedusa, guarantee the success of the Italians' migration project to rural mountainous areas by becoming labor for agri-tourisms and niche market production, the synergy of the two (not devoid of criticisms) contributes to the local communities' revival of memories and the re-invention of traditional gastronomies , in a circle of inter-relation.

The here proposed contribution will therefore tackle the tensions and resistances in the contemporary unprecedented social composition of the Western Alps through the example of the contended "patata di montagna" (lit. the mountain potato). The alpine potatoes, like its' human communities, can exemplify, practically and symbolically, the intersection between mobility, appropriation, circulation, memories, domesticity, belonging and nourishment.