Journal of Alpine Research | Revue de géographie alpine, 106-2 | 2018 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Alpine Metropolis. Towards a New Partnership Between Towns and Mountains?
Revue de géographie alpine, 2018
This issue encourages us to reopen the discussion on the relation between towns and mountains, in light of metropolisation. Why reopen the discussion? Nearly 20 years ago now, the Revue de Géographie Alpine (which had not yet been renamed Journal of Alpine Research) devoted two successive issues to the Alpine town. The relation between towns and the Alps was broached in two different ways: on the one hand, through Alpine identity, and on the other, through economic development. The economic angle made it possible to examine the effect of milieu and in particular the mountain morphology through the prism of polarisation models. It led to a mixed observation, showing that though it was possible to outline "specific Alpine factors, such as relief, traditions, accessibility and weak population density" (Perlik, 1999), the trajectory of these towns did not differentiate them from other similarly sized entities in Europe. The second volume broached the representations and discourse leading to the identification of Alpine towns. It once again demonstrated the impossibility of defining common characteristics among Alpine towns, and even the challenge of delimitating Alpine towns faced with the dilution of urban features or the variability of regional divisions. Above all, the Alpine quality appeared to be a political, social or scientific construction, brandished for its ability to generate mobilising affiliations and valorising representations. The Alpine town was a performative argument, on which a political or ideological project could be based, whether relating to territorial appropriation (the Alpine "capital"), to a "club" (network of cities) or to the promotion of sustainable development (the "Alpine Cities of the Year" label). Ultimately, both issues demonstrated that the meaning that could be given to the Alpine town was not-or was no longer-an economic or a functional one, but a symbolic one, and was found in the belonging and in the power of images rather than Alpine Metropolis. Towards a New Partnership Between Towns and Mountains?
Collection Kultura Kultura Metropolisation, Regionalisation and Rural Intermunicipal Cooperation. What Impact on Local, Regional and National Governments in Europe
This book presents the proceedings of the symposium, organized in Bratislava by the Observatory on Local Autonomy (OLA-www.ola-europe.com), in partnership with the Committee of Municipalities and Regions of Europe (CEMR: www.ccre.org) and with Comenius University of Bratislava (https://uniba.sk/en/) on the theme of "Metropolisation, regionalization and rural intermunicipality in Europe". The Bratislava conference is the continuation of work begun in Vilnius, Bologna and Erlangen and Nuremberg. Territorial reforms are underway in many European States and the establishment or restructuring of regional levels of government and/or the creation of certain forms of metropolitan structures are at the heart of these reforms. Regardless of the historical context of these countries or of their current administrative organization, similar dilemmas and concerns have been raised at the European level. The themes of intermunicipal communication, discussed in this book, which includes metropolitanisation and rural cooperation, illustrates and reminds us the fact that, since the dawn of organised life in society, the basic level of local government has been the town level, and everything else was built up from there.
Journal of Alpine Research | Revue de géographie alpine, 107-2 | 2019
2016
Changes in the socio-economic framework that have taken place since the late 1960s have disrupted the multi-centennial balanced models of organisation in mountain communities, leading to a series of challenges in the socio-economical, cultural and environmental spheres. Mountain communities, independently or with the support of local and regional authorities, tried to halt or reverse these processes. In some cases, the effort is not only collective, but the sum of different individuals belonging or related to the community. Processes of social innovation arose sparsely in various alpine territories, and many of them are connected to a novel interest in the primary sector by locals and new residents. The combination of both, but not exclusively, could be considered as generating “new farming”. Authors present two cases identified in the north eastern part of the Italian Alps, which can be associated to this phenomenon. One has been analysed as an external initiative, in which the oth...
Journal of Alpine Research | Revue de géographie alpine, 102-3 | 2014
2016
The article analyses the recent status and development of permanent inhabitants and second homes in the UNESCO World Heritage (WH) Dolomites area in the Italian Alps. First, the results show that a growth of permanent population is ongoing selectively in the urban and periurban areas, confirming earlier research in the Alpine arc and showing that agglomeration advantages are taking place. Second, the results show that these processes are parallel to a shifting use of second homes, announcing a transformation from an export-based to a residential economy in which second homes seem not to be homogeneously complementary to the tourist sector. Third, the Dolomites are not a homogenous region: despite the joint application process for WH site involving five provinces, demographic and economic differences can be highlighted along the provincial borders. This proves that demographic development is strongly pathdependent and conditioned by institutional settings and legislation. Therefore, ...