Call for paper EUGEO: “New forms of living in the mountains. Spaces, times and new economies”
Si invita alla presentazione di un abstract del X Congresso EUGEO 2025 che si terrà a Vienna 8 – 11 Settembre 2025 dal tema “Geographies of a Changing Europe” per la sessione ID: 162 “New forms of living in the mountains. Spaces, times and new economies”
Category: Human Geography, Population Geography
Keywords: left behind place, repopulation, digital nomads, neo-rural, mountain areas
Chairs: Nicolò Fenu, Paolo Giaccaria, Samantha Cenere
la scadenza per la presentazione degli abstract è il 20 Gennaio.
È possibile inviare le proposte alla pagina:
https://www.eugeo2025.eu/eugeo-2025-sessions/
Qui l’abstract della sessione:
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.
