Paper short abstract:

Our paper proposes a brief literature review of comparative perspectives in mountain studies within sociocultural geography and anthropology to point out the diverse forms of describing and analyzing changing communities in different mountain regions, particularly in the Alps and the Andes.

Paper long abstract:

We discuss the potentialities of existing geographical and anthropological approaches to analyze changes in communities of mountain areas in the context of contemporary multi-crisis and uncertainties.

In comparative sociocultural anthropology of mountain areas, since the 1980s, scholars have investigated historical processes and wider regional scales to overcome reductionist forms of cultural ecology. Andean anthropologists have focused on political violence, migrations, and changing economic connections at local, national, and global level. In the Alps, anthropologists have taken the economic transformation of the second afterwar as a starting point, both searching for continuities in memory and monitoring demographic change, depopulation, and repopulation. In the last two decades, from all these branches, scholars have directly addressed the uncertainties of globalization and environmental crisis.

In sociocultural geography too, historical analysis has been particularly fruitful to describe and analyze changes in the Alps. As a common feature, geographical mountain studies stress the interdependence of mountain and plain areas and underline that demographic changes go hand in hand with social, economic and landscape changes. Furthermore, geographical mountain studies identify changes in politics as a possible driving force of variations in the use of different vertical zones and social transformations. Studies investigating the formation of collective identities describe changes in the forms of identity construction of communities in mountain areas through political transformations and economic globalization. A last set of literature focuses on the change of the image of mountain areas connected to the arts, and economic and communicative globalization.

Paper short abstract:

This paper is about how intersecting social and climate changes are affecting the agricultural practices and emotional well-being of small-scale farmers in the Lombardy region of the central Italian Alps.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is about how intersecting social and climate changes are affecting the agricultural practices and emotional well-being of small-scale farmers in the Lombardy region of the central Italian Alps. Alpine areas are particularly susceptible to climate change. Small-scale mountain farmers, dependent on Alpine ecosystems and weather patterns for their livelihoods, find themselves on the frontlines of change. Semi-structured interviews and participant observation were conducted with 40 farmers over the course of 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Val Camonica. The paper presents four case studies to demonstrate that the impact of climate change on mountain farms varies – across even short distances – depending on the microenvironment and microclimate of the farm, farmer histories on the land, the farm’s degree of market integration, and the type of agricultural activities practiced. The paper also provides a window onto small-scale farming in the Alps today under conditions of uncertainty linked to climate, ecosystem, and social changes. As farmers respond to climate change, they do so in a context where they are also facing myriad other challenges, often more pressing than climate change. Government climate policies and programs should recognize these simultaneous challenges, be flexible to hyperlocal differences in the impact of and farmer responses to change, and seek to promote farmer well-being.

Paper short abstract:

Based on a long-term ethnography 'at home' in a Swiss alpine canton, this contribution analyses the connection that this mountain society has with its glaciers, as indicative of the complex political, citizen and spiritual relationships that it builds with its changing environment.

Paper long abstract:

On September 6th, 2022, over 200 people from various climate protection organizations gathered at the foot of the Trient glacier in Valais, an alpine canton in Southwestern Switzerland, to celebrate his funeral. The participants included a parish priest who blessed the dying glacier, urging the faithful to stop being masters of Nature, but to instead “find their rightful place” in her.

Processions and prayers to glaciers are nothing new to Valais (and to Switzerland). Since 1678, the Aletsch glacier has been feared and prayed about in processions by the people of the valley, to ensure that its progress is contained. However, since 2011, people's prayers have changed direction: they are now appealing to God to fight global warming and the subsequent melting of the glacier.

In several Valais regions, inhabitants set up and attend events that aim at materializing a spiritual link with Nature, in an attempt to make the consequences of climate change visible. Simultaneously, the local State seeks to strengthen the management and coordination of responses to the so-called “natural hazards” that face its alpine territory, by creating a new state service: the Natural Hazards Service (which include glaciers, avalanches, landslides, torrential flows).

This contribution draws a parallel between a technocratic state management of “natural hazards” and specific empathetic attitudes towards Nature as a living being (especially glaciers, but not only) in Switzerland. It relies on examples of more than human entanglements to cope with changing “natural disasters”, whether these are inevitable or more uncertain.

Paper short abstract:

This paper compares two situated initiatives regarding ecological transition in the Alps and takes into account the attributes, aspirations, and social positions of their promoters within local communities. Moreover, it focuses on how forms of locality are renewed by such frames of meaning.

Paper long abstract:

In the Alps, uncertainties induced by climate change have rapidly propagated the idea that ecological transition represents a necessary shift for the viability of local economies and ways of life. However, propositions on how such change should be achieved are still modest and tend to ignore the ways these discourses circulate and are understood at the ground level, for example when being appropriated by farmers, entrepreneurs, and public administrators. A closer exploration of the cultural and relational resources of people promoting ecological conversions in such contexts appears promising, especially for anticipating the outcomes of these processes, whilst allowing, through a scrutiny of the conflicts and negotiations that actions for sustainability produce, to inquiry into the persistence of local social structures.

Based on a comparative ethnographic research project in the Swiss and Italian Alps, this paper explores ecological transition as a peculiar form of desired social change within Alpine contexts marked by socio-demographic recompositions, and considers the attitudes and attributes of such change-makers, as well as their position in the local social space. It describes their perceptions of ways for achieving a sustainable life in the Alps, while considering how ecological transition enters in their aspirations on locality and is used to relocate their territory within the national imagery. In the end, the paper calls for a renewed attention to the multifold manners in which such "will to improve" take place in multi-scalar arenas shaped by institutional configurations, economic interests, and informal networks.

Paper short abstract:

In this ethnographic research we will present how families faced the educational situation in schools during the health crisis of Covid-19 and why the use of digital technologies by students is causing disagreements and uncertainties in the families of the communities

Paper long abstract:

The research was developed in the communities of Ocongate, Cusco, Peru located between 3,535 to 4,000 meters above sea level. During the pandemic, in the educational centers, school work was carried out online. For this reason, in the communities the need for the use of digital devices (cell phone, tablet and lap top) as a resource and tool to continue with school work increased. In this sense, we ask ourselves, how did families face the educational situation in schools during the health crisis of Covid-19? and why the use of digital technologies by students is causing disagreements and uncertainties in the families of the communities?

In the rural communities of Ocongate the level of knowledge and management of digital devices in many students, parents and even teachers was insufficient. These actors had to learn the use of these technologies abruptly while dealing with its challenges later on. On the one hand, many parents consider that the use of digital technologies is motivating students to acquire bad habits, generating a crisis of values such as respect and obedience within the family. In the case of students, the virtualization of classes meant a new space to be introduced and find new knowledge, different cultures, new ways to express themselves and relate to a wider society; which at the same time intensifies their interest in relating to things they identify as "modern". In this context, parents and teachers lack adequate strategies to orient students about the risks and advantages of using such technology.

Paper short abstract:

Based on empirical research this paper will address how people from small village communities in the Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria) have united to take measures against the realization of private business investments that would disrupt the established regimes of environmental protection in the region.

Paper long abstract:

Based on empirical research this paper will address one current issue: how people from small village communities in the Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria) have united to take measures against the realization of private business interests and investments – the opening of quarries for the extraction of marble and ballast that would disrupt the established regimes of environmental protection in the region of the Middle Rhodopes - these are the areas included in the UNESCO protected biosphere reserve Červenata stena (Red wall) and the program “Natura 2000”. The ongoing research is focused on people’s strategies of coping with change and uncertainty such as protests and local resistance movements that mobilize public support through social, kinship and political networks. The following issues will be discussed in more detail: the emergence of new political, cultural, and ecological awareness of mountain communities fighting against the environmental exploitation of their territories; the role of the new inhabitants and their families in preserving local livelihoods and traditions, and the many forms of negotiation on how living together, including different visions and even conflicts on practices of resource management, sustainability, and heritage.

The analysis is based on an ethnographic study carried out in the villages of Červen, Dolnoslav, Gornoslav, Dobrostan and the town of Asenovgrad - the center of the local Municipality within the the research project "Anthropology of Uncertainty"(2021-2024) supported by the Bulgarian Science Fund.

Paper short abstract:

The presentation analyzes the case of a mountain village from Eastern Carpathians. A former industrial settlement (and its generally poor people) that entered into a deep decline in 1990s is facing a series of challenges (unemployment, depopulation and newcomers) and tries to cope with them.

Paper long abstract:

The analyzed village, which is located on the eastern border of Transylvania, in the middle of pine forests in the Eastern Carpathians, was established in the late 19th century as a lumbering settlement. It witnessed a rapid growth both economically and demographically being a sort of melting pot for people with different ethnic background. According to local sources, in the interwar period the village had 6-7000 inhabitants attracted by the job opportunities and better salaries. The economic booms, however, were always followed by deep declines: the most recent one occurred in 1990s, after the fall of Romanian socialism and nowadays it seems that the village will be totally depopulated after slightly more than 100 years of existence. Nowadays officially there are around 1000 people in the village and the figures are constantly decreasing.

Meantime, however, in spite of the still unpaved road, the surroundings attracted new settlers: wealthy people from nearby cities and even from Bucharest and Budapest built new style villas mainly on the fringes of the village and hidden in the forests. While they prefer to live a secluded way of life, they cannot avoid to interfere with the locals and two worlds collide in discourses and lifestyles. The presentation analyzes the contradictions and uncertainties of mountain life in 21st century: the memories of the better past, the sorrows of the present and the promises of the future brought by the potential tourists, the sympathies and antipathies towards them.

Paper short abstract:

Focusing on three mountain villages in central Sardinia, we outline a brief cultural history of local economies with particular attention to depopulation, heritagisation, and tourism, using a methodology that combines ethnographic and historical research techniques.

Paper long abstract:

Nature-based tourism and the processes of heritagisation represent well-established objects of study within the social sciences. When reviewing the literature on this topic, it is possible to realize that a consistent part of it has to do with mountain areas, particularly in contexts with a historically established tourist tradition, such as the Alps, the Pyrenees, or, more recently, the Andes. However, less attention has been devoted to the Mediterranean mountains, such as those in Sardinia. Today the mountains of Sardinia are being rediscovered. In particular, with the development of the so-called nature-based tourism, the mountains and their villages are attracting numerous visitors and sports enthusiasts searching for hiking, local products and cultural traditions. It is about the current interest in a new environmental sensitivity and climate crisis, as well as the local cultural heritage. At the same time, however, the mountain villages of Sardinia face severe depopulation problems, a process that dates back to the 1960s and has determined profound changes in these territories. Using a methodology that combines historical research and ethnographic techniques, in this paper, we propose to outline a brief cultural history of local economies from the nineteenth century to the present, focusing on three significant cases: Aritzo, Mamoiada and Fonni.

Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on ambiguities in cultural salvaging among the Castrejos in the northern portuguese mountains. It reports on a community’s efforts to celebrate cultural pride while being haunted by the ghosts of a suffered past, and problematizes identity rescued from iconographic imagery.

Paper long abstract:

In northern Portugal, Castro Laboreiro struggles to carry and maintain its cultural burden. The Castrejos proudly inherit a collective identity emerging from terrible strife against the harsh conditions of the mountaintops they historically inhabit. The men would travel afar for work, often under terrible conditions; the women would remain as stewards of the land and home, bearing black clothing and black capes that earned them national recognition as Castrejo icons. Most Castrejos no longer live in Castro Laboreiro. A widespread migration process in the 20th century led them outwards, and the riches that followed turned into irreversible transformations in the culture, architecture, and everyday life of the land. And yet, even living in the city, or abroad, a lot of Castrejos still proudly identify as such, socialize among themselves, and return regularly to the mountains they came from. However, the future of Castro Laboreiro is undetermined. Agriculture is no longer an economically sustainable practice, and the few business opportunities revolve around tourism which draws heavily from Castrejo historical traditions, often blurring the lines of authenticity. Facing an uncertain future, Castrejos turn to cultural pride, securing representations of their iconographic past as affirmations of the Castro Laboreiro that still exists. But these representations are haunted by the ghosts of the harsh conditions that Castrejos originally fled from. This paper will report on the ongoing uncertainties and ambiguities of Castrejo pride, drawing from ethnographical observations and narratives around domestic photographic collections gathered between the years 2020 and 2022.

Paper short abstract:

Our proposal presents an anthropological research project that addresses creative ways of approaching the issues of living and of using local environmental resources in three marginal villages of the Italian Alps, with particular attention for the recovery of agricultural practices and knowledges.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents the theoretical and methodological background and the first provisional results of a research project conducted by an anthropological équipe, flanked by an economist and an agronomist. This research is part of a broader Italian nationwide research project, which aims to conduct in-depth ethnographic investigations in several villages in marginal areas of Italy. The anthropological investigation, which will last a total of three years, aims at understanding perceptions, conceptions, and practices of inhabiting in peripheral and small-scale living contexts, calling into question the notion of “margin” and exploring innovative processes of cultural production and sociality creation. With a comparative view, it focuses on three communities in the Italian Western Alps, affected for decades by demographic decline and progressive reduction to marginal lands, which are now experiencing new practices for a more balanced and sustainable growth and virtuous processes of local development. The project looks with particular interest at the emergence of associations and farms that are reintroducing historically documented but almost abandoned cultivations, as a creative way of addressing the issues of living and using local environmental resources. The research aims at illustrating examples of possible responses to the concept of marginality, evaluating both “capital” and limits, observing the ways in which local communities are addressing questions that have involved the whole Alpine territory over the last twenty years: who are the inhabitants of the villages and marginal areas today? What kind of resources, of networks, of social and cultural capital are produced in upland communities?