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162 (II): New forms of living in the mountains. Spaces, times and new economies (Ii)
2nd Session Chair: Paolo Giaccaria, 3rd Session Chair: Samantha Cenere
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In recent years, mountain areas have experienced a resurgence of interest and repopulation, which challenges traditional representations of these contexts and redefines individual life projects and the collective political dimension. This phenomenon is multifaceted, with various profiles among the so-called "new mountaineers" (Corrado et al., 2014). On the one hand, there are amenity migrants, such as digital nomads, who are attracted to mountain regions due to the increasing availability of digital infrastructure, and neo-rural, who are rediscovering traditional professions linked to mountain territories, such as agriculture and shepherding (Jelen et al., 2024). Additionally, we have been witnessing families fleeing urban environments, retirees, and artists, who have in common the desire to become "mountaineers by choice" (Dematteis, 2011). People moving to or returning to mountain life often pursue lifestyles that echo historical patterns of mountain living. In the past, the seasonal nature of certain jobs led to a lifestyle characterized by a diverse range of occupations, frequent mobility, temporary living arrangements, and multi-residentiality (Perlik, 2011; Weichhart, 2009). However, these traits are reappearing in the lives of new mountaineers due to different processes. For geography, these emerging lifestyles offer valuable insights into the field's long-standing yet highly relevant themes. The study of diverse and alternative economies (Gibson-Graham, 1996; 2006) often associated with mountain living sheds light on experiences typically seen as marginal or residual. Furthermore, the role of digital technologies in enabling the mobility of digital nomads in non-urban settings—through the proliferation of remote workstations and coworking spaces (Akhavan et al., 2021; Burgin et al., 2021)—reveals the development of new digital geographies. These connect new mountaineers to both their physical surroundings and a more comprehensive network of supralocal relationships. Finally, alternative forms of tourism, such as the "albergo diffuso" (scattered hotel), encourage new forms of hospitality that engage tourists with local communities and landscapes (Varani et al., 2022). This session aims to explore the diverse ways of living in the mountains, focusing on themes such as temporality, mobility, and occupational flexibility, and developing a framework for understanding the phenomenon through concepts, theories, and methods. | |
| Presentations | |
The choice is yours – Applying a discrete choice experiment to a dynamic adaptive policy pathway for resident-lead rural development University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria As a rural and mountainous region facing climate change and land use shifts, the area surrounding the Ötscher in Lower Austria is confronted with uncertainty and seeking new opportunities for people and economy. The local ski industry which was small but impactful has an undetermined future and investors are hesitant to develop touristic infrastructure. Transformative change is needed for a fundamental shift towards a sustainable future. The question arises, which new economies could drive future regional development and would be supported by locals. First, an inter- and transdisciplinary resilience framework in the Ötscher region was applied. This was followed by a dynamic adaptive policy pathway (DAPP) approach to determine directions which would branch out into sustainable development not yet tapped into while strengthening regional resilience. After DAPPs were developed and discussed with experts and local stakeholders, a discrete choice experiment was distributed via a representative survey in the region. The results indicated that the complex and dynamic conditions introduced by climate change can only be solved in an integrated and transdisciplinary manner. By using the DAPP approach scientific expertise on expected development in this mountainous region concerning climate change and land use changed could be joined with inclusion of local communities. The choice experiment demonstrated that while maintaining or even growing the local tourism industry remains a central development aim for the population, they are interested in expanding into new economies and innovation industries to strengthen regional resilience. Nevertheless, there is heterogentiy in the preferences for future development pathways among different population segments. Blockchains and tokenization for social and community economies in mountain areas 1University of Turin, Italy; 2University of Camerino, Italy Digital technologies play a relevant role in the emergence of new forms of economies, living and collective actions in rural and mountain areas, although challenges differ to those encountered in urban settings. This contribution concern the domain of digital social innovation and local development processes in the framework of smart villages or smart rural strategies (Sept, 2020; Zerrer and Sept, 2020). Here digital technologies are expected to enable innovation that tackle problems such as the depopulation and discontinuities in the delivery of public services, and to valorize resources such as new forms of repopulation (Johnson and Vlachokyriakos, 2024) or the emergence of social entrepreneurship in “left behind places”. Namely, we focus on the potentials and challenges of blockchain technology as an enabler of social innovation and of new social economies in mountain areas. Blockchain technology raises interest in the field of social and community-based economies, since it allows to tokenize (i.e. to represent in a digital form) different types of asset of values (not only monetary); to safely transfer them even in the absence of intermediaries; and to automatize value transactions (Gloerich et al., 2020; Domenicale et al., 2024). As such, how can local tourism systems, community hubs, community cooperatives benefit from tokenized economies? Can tokenized incentives contribute to encouraging newcomers to collaborate in new economies in mountain communities? This contribution explores how blockchain based applications are being introduced in local development and social innovation process in mountain areas in Italy. On one side, it analyses how this technology is proposed in local development strategies around the concept of “smart villages”, developed by public institutions and technology experts (Cristoforetti G., 2024). On the other hand, it focuses on an experimental project on a blockchain-based application designed for civic participation and social economies (Viano et al., 2023), presenting initial findings from the co-design of this digital platform done by the authors with local actors (municipalities, local development agencies, social entrepreneurs) in the Piedmont region. Reimagining Alpine Inhabitation: Gentrification, Political Ecologies, and Shared Practices of Care GSSI, Italy Contemporary frameworks such as the Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, and Chthulucene highlight how power imbalances and systemic domination have shaped Earth's habitability. Ecological, economic, and social crises have drawn scholarly attention to the margins, where the remnants of these systems manifest most vividly. This research explores "ruined" alpine areas, borrowing Anna Tsing's terminology to describe socio-ecosystemic contexts that have lost diversity due to impoverishment and unchecked proliferation, often favoring some groups at the expense of others. Focusing on the small town of Bormio and its mountain huts in the Alta Valtellina region, this contribution aims to explore the phenomenon of alpine gentrification as conceptualized by scholars like Boscoboinik and Cretton. This analytical framework reveals the intersectional dimensions of mountain lifestyle mobilities, emphasizing how processes of discrimination and exploitation transform these areas. The present contribution aims to transcend the current polarized discourse of old versus new inhabitants. It offers a nuanced perspective on inhabitation in mountain territories, investigating how gentrification has reshaped the rural dimension of this place and its surroundings. It also critically examines the "waste" of these processes, identifying spaces where diverse actors co-exist through shared practices of mutual responsibility and care, transcending self-sufficiency and domination. The theoretical framework is grounded in materiality through Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a methodological lens, investigating the diverse political ecologies and everyday practices of inhabitation within the case study's territory. Moreover, ethnographic research and participant observation form the basis of an immersive exploration of the area, drawing on Nigel Thrift’s "non-representational approaches" and Guy Debord’s practice of "drifting." Additionally, semi-structured interviews and performative cartographies map possible alternative forms of inhabitation and critically analyze gentrification’s impacts. Ultimately, the research reimagines the mountain not as a passive object of study but as an active subjectivity—a dynamic space of habitability. The intent is to "repair it" from narratives that envision a future of ruin for it or, in the case of alpine gentrification, foresee the ruin of its future through projections of worlds shaped by dominant needs and ideas and by identifying the emerging alternative forms of inhabiting a place. Reviving the massif, not the mountains: Grounding new territorial projects in Val Seriana (Italy) Università degli studi di Bergamo, Italy In recent years, the international debate—both scientific and political—on Alpine Mountain regions has gained renewed prominence. Spurred by emerging challenges such as depopulation, aging populations, and land abandonment, interdisciplinary exchanges and research efforts have sought to uncover new opportunities for mountainous areas. Along the way, many interpretative frameworks have been distilled into shared keywords, resulting in hybrid slogans that shift from analytical tools to overused semantic fields (e.g., “inner areas,” “high-lands”). This evolution has often diluted the original interpretative power of these concepts, reducing them to stereotypes devoid of substantive meaning. This contribution aims to challenge the conventional notion of mountain territorialization, which is typically organized around valleys, by instead reviving the concept of the massif (Burini, Ferlinghetti, Ghisalberti, 2023; Ferlinghetti, 2024; Adobati et al., 2025). The massif framework better captures the geohistorical and territorial logics of anthropization in the Alpine and Prealpine regions of Lombardy, which are profoundly influenced by megalopolitan dynamics (Turri, 2000) emanating from the Po Valley and, particularly, the foothill plateau. This perspective allows for a more nuanced understanding of the complexity and potential of mountain areas. These contexts are multifaceted, rugged, diverse, and heavily anthropized territories that are deeply connected to global networks of capital flows, value extraction, and settlement dynamics in adjacent regions. Analyzed through the lens of the massif, mountain environments reveal distinct settlement patterns: congested valley floors, often structured as linear cities, and the mid-to-upper slopes and valley heads, which are increasingly shaped by abandonment and rewilding. The massif perspective provides a framework for reimagining strategies to revitalize slopes, fostering inter-valley networks, and addressing intra-valley imbalances from the ground (Ash and Lancione, 2022), oriented to transition experiments in the fields of architecture, urban and landscape design, and policies development. The study focuses on the Seriana Valley in the province of Bergamo (Lombardy, Italy), serving as a key case study. It forms part of the PRIN 2022 research project, “Governance for mountain reticularity: co-design and activation of a ‘contratto d’abitare’ for the territorial regeneration of the Seriana Valley”, coordinated by the University of Bergamo, with the authors as members of the research team. | |