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- Convenors:
-
Andrea Boscoboinik
(University of Fribourg)
Viviane Cretton Mballow (HES-SO Valais Wallis, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Western Switzerland)
Maria Offenhenden (Rovira i Virgili University)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Environment
- Sessions:
- Thursday 24 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Helsinki
Short Abstract:
Mountain regions are undergoing rapid changes which modify its production models, land-use, population and lifestyles. This panel aims to reflect upon mountain areas as contested spaces that entail negotiations and transgressions shaping alternative understandings of locality in a globalised world.
Long Abstract:
Mountain regions are undergoing rapid changes closely intertwined with economic globalisation and neoliberal practices, which modify in unexpected ways its production models, land-use, population and lifestyles. Moreover, various forms of mobility are recomposing the social fabric of mountain areas, reshaping the terms of solidarity, participation and conflict, forging new forms and feelings of belonging and otherness, structured on the basis of intersectional categories of social stratification.
Considering locality as a matter of relationships and context, (re)produced by and within social interaction, this panel aims to reflect upon mountain areas as contested spaces that entail complex negotiations between local and global imaginaries and practices. It invites to take an original and reflexive look at classic areas of mountain anthropology by focusing on power relations and tensions between various actors and institutions involved in the production of locality in a globalised world.
To move in this direction, we welcome contributions that explore how rules, imaginaries and values of locality are negotiated, contested or reshaped, at different levels (political, economic, cultural, social); how actors negotiate their identities and feelings as being natives, as well as being international, mobile, worldwide connected and concerned by both local and global causes; how different mountain dwellers (such as international, national, local or multilocal residents, fixed or temporary inhabitants, tourists or workers) relate, practice and produce locality in everyday life; and in turn, in which ways negotiations and transgressions of rules shape alternative understandings of locality.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 24 June, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This contribution will focus on different migration and mobility patterns in two Swiss mountain regions, including lifestyle mobilities and (“low skilled”) labor migrations, and their implications on local identities and imaginaries about the “local” and the “global”.
Paper long abstract:
With the revalorization of mountainous and rural regions and socio-economic transformations such as urbanization and rural gentrification, recent studies on migration and mobilities in the mountains mostly focused on amenity migration, lifestyle mobilities and multilocal residentialities (e.g. Benson & Osbaldiston 2014, Perlik 2011, Moss&Glorioso 2014). However, in many mountain regions we can observe a “touristic urbanization” (Stock/Lucas 2012) with a subsequent growth of e.g. the hospitality industry and corresponding migrations and mobilities of “low skilled workers” (often labelled as “saisonniers”). Thus, migration patterns in such regions are very diverse and we find not only (former) tourists, second-home owners and “expats” who move, stay and settle in mountain areas, but also (former) working tourists, labor migrants and seasonal workers. With their different cultural and social backgrounds these new inhabitants can be said to find themselves in different “regimes of mobility” (Glick Schiller/Salazar 2014) leading to different positions in global and local social hierarchies (Salazar 2020).
This contribution aims at shedding light on identity strategies and social practices of new mountain inhabitants in two Swiss ski resorts dealing with their mobilities and place attachments in the framework of their respective “regimes of mobility” and the “local” narratives of migration and “integration”. Doing this, I will tackle questions such as: How do (labor) “migrants” in comparison to “cosmopolitan expats” shape their strategies of “being mobile” and “becoming local” in mountain regions? And what kinds of imaginaries about the “local” (and the “global”) are mobilized by these new mountain inhabitants?
Paper short abstract:
In a Swiss Alpine touristic village that can be described as a "contact zone" (Pratt 1991), I discuss the key role of locality in tourism imaginaries, localist politics and for mountain dwellers who identified as local "natives", negotiating between progressive ideals and social conservatism.
Paper long abstract:
Touristification processes in the Alps have often been described as vehicles of modernity that radically transformed the life of mountain dwellers thanks to technological progress and increased mobility flows in areas that were previously isolated and poor.
Based on 13 months of fieldwork in a German-speaking village in the Swiss Alps, I discuss how one could conceive the village as a “contact zone” (Pratt 1991), made of great variety of actors whose trajectories intersect in the resort. In spite of my fieldsite's transnational connections, I show how imaginaries of locality continued to play a key role in the village. On the one side, locality shaped the region's peculiar “tourism imaginaries” (Salazar and Graburn 2014) of Alpine simplicity and purity that could be sold to guests. On the other, it was playing into localist identity politics celebrating the village's "natives".
By drawing on the experiences of different mountain dwellers, I show how they negotiated their positions as locals between progressive, cosmopolitan ideals tied to tourism development and political tendencies for social conservatism and nationalist and/or localist nativism. Far from contradictory, these two tendencies were rather complimentary as they both celebrated the figure of the “genuine native” as that of the only authentic mountain dweller, albeit for different purposes. While the village was a complex and fluctuating "contact zone", a rather rigid hierarchy of belonging structured who was allowed to identify and feel like a “real” local.
Paper short abstract:
Long considered prototypical local ’commons’, the irrigation systems of Valais have emerged from a period of decline and abandonment by adopting new modes of operation and regulation through which traditional civic corporations and a multiplicity of non-local actors now cooperate.
Paper long abstract:
Irrigation systems are a well-established field of research within mountain anthropology, as exemplified by the irrigation systems of Canton Valais in the Swiss Alps (also named ‘bisses’). The bisses featured prominently in the research of cultural ecologist Robert Mc. Netting, whose work was later integrated into Elinor Ostrom’s ground-breaking publication ‘Governing the Commons’ (1990). Since then, the bisses have been held-up as prototypical long-standing ’commons’, which traditionally operate at a localised level.
However, starting in the 1950s, radical land use change linked to agricultural decline and the rise of tourism resulted in many irrigation channels being abandoned by 1970. Since then, the perceived significance of the bisses has expanded beyond the established agricultural function, to acknowledge their value in terms of heritage, tourism, and ecology. This shift has led to the emergence of non-local actors operating within new modalities of cooperation that reflect larger regional, national, and international dynamics.
The everyday operation and regulation of the bisses is traditionally governed by highly-localised civic corporations (‘bourgeoisies’, ‘consortages’) whose members partake in collective labour (‘corvées’). However, in the last few decades, construction, renovation, and maintenance works have taken place with the direct participation of the Swiss Alpine Club, associations of amateurs and enthusiasts, secondary residents of mountain villages, refugees, unemployed workers, and military personnel. Thus, the rules of operation of the bisses are being challenged by new linkages between local and non-local actors, who are now directly engaged in the production – and indeed, most importantly – the reproduction of the commons.
Paper short abstract:
New forms of food production, property and conviviality are emerging in the Western Italian Alps. This paper analyses the tools, occasions and dynamics that foster participation, sharing and co-creation of knowledge and practices among native and new-comer stakeholders in the local foodscapes.
Paper long abstract:
In the Western Italian Alps, different social, political and demographic changes have been observed in the last three decades, such as a clear trend of repopulation, changes in the local food chains and in local community dynamics. The emerging trends of changing actors and practices are bringing new forms of agriculture, food production, property and conviviality in mountain rural foodscapes.
Through a series of case studies from three different valleys, this paper analyses the tools, occasions and dynamics that foster connectivity, participation, sharing and co-creation of knowledge and practices among native and new-comer stakeholders in the local food networks. Furthermore, this paper examines spaces and initiatives where innovative forms of property, food sovereignty practices and community cohesion contribute in building the local food system resilience.
The hybridisation of food knowledge and practices between locals, new highlanders and returning mountaineers brings new understandings and interpretations of the local socio-environmental contexts.
Community gardens and ovens, social breweries and experiments of community supported agriculture are some examples of emerging spaces to ferment new forms of locality, collective identities and stewardship memories.
Paper short abstract:
One of the most ancient industrial area in northern Italy is questioning about its cultural identity. The population of a newborn municipality named Valdilana (Wool Valley) in the Biellese textile district experiences the cleavage between the industrial imaginary and the claims of mountain dwellers.
Paper long abstract:
The Biellese area is known for its glorious textile industrial history, including famous brands of the Made in Italy. Since the 2000s the international economic trends changed dramatically.
The awareness of the difficult economic sustainability leads to a new large municipality in 2019. A popular referendum identified its name in “Valdilana” (Valley of wool), reinforcing the link with the manufacturing tradition. A choice that can be interpreted as a recognition of the territorial identity although the effects of the process of deindustrialization are evident in the general moods of distrust.
Alternatives scenarios to industry are increasingly imagined, prefigured and discussed, mostly focusing on the environmental resources of the area. An example is the “Biellezza” Foundation, merging the names Biella and ‘bellezza’ (i.e. beauty), which is a specific project driven by influential economic actors of the territory (such as the Zegna Group). Starting from the analysis of some specific actions provided by this new subject, the research compares the results of a micro-history study about late XIX Century. From the thread of "Land and looms", this research investigates the basis for the mutation of the ‘community solidarity’ indicated as synthesis of the contested space in this alpine territory. The results describe the cleavage between the reassuring imagery of an idealised past, based on industrial heritage, and the new suggestions from globalisation. Here the need for new identity traits emerges, based on the cohexistence of the mountain landscapes, the purity of nature, the healthy lifestyle, the economic perspectives of modern textile industry.