Paper short abstract:

Mobility symbolises the urban and the present, the settled symbolises the rural and the past. An ethnographic look at seemingly depopulated villages in the rural Alps-Adriatic counters this assumption. Why has this dynamic memory of mobility and the settled been silenced in the hegemonic discourse?

Paper long abstract:

Mobility symbolises the urban and the present, the settled symbolises the rural and the past. A closer ethnographic look at seemingly depopulated villages in the rural Alps-Adriatic between Italy, Austria and Slovenia counters this widespread assumption. The region has been the site of major European conflicts in the 20th century. Focussing the villages reveals a heritage of political and ethnic conflicts, subsequent labour migrations, periodic returns and multi-local settlement, a memory which is silenced in the hegemonic discourse on seemingly remote and peripheral mountain areas. Yet in everyday lives, this heritage continues to be performed and practiced until today, creating specific forms of transnational, multilingual sociality where the urban and the rural combine and fixed national identities are being transgressed.

Why has this dynamic memory of mobility and the settled been silenced behind the discourses of globalisation, urbanisation, and depopulation of the rural? What is to be gained by directing attention to places where it is practiced as living heritage? This paper demonstrates memory practices and subjectivities which cannot be reduced to a single national heritage, to either country or city. It argues that the silenced yet persistent memory of mobility and settlement and especially its roots hold the seed for open-minded social relations which may counteract the nationalist revival that seems so prevalent in today's Europe.