Bernard Debarbieux

Representing Mountains: From Local and National to Global Common Good

Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, mountains have acquired global recognition as a specific issue in the promotion of sustainable development policies. Starting from the traditional roles of mountains for local societies and in modern geopolitics, this paper analyses the status that mountains have been acquiring though globalisation, and the modes of global mobilisation and recognition that have taken shape since 1992. Particular attention is given to the role of scientists, international organisations, some mountainous states, and “mountain people”. The specific characteristics of this process are discussed and compared to those pertinent to other goods, especially ‘geographical’ or ‘ecological’ goods such as tropical forests and Antarctica. Though the globalisation of mountain issues is part of a wider process of the recognition of environmental and cultural goods at a global level, it may be seen as the first example of a new category of global common good: “global common regions” or “glocal common good”.

Unbounded boundary studies and collapsed categories: rethinking spatial objects

This paper is a response to Reece Jones’ ‘Categories, borders and boundaries’ (2009) that aims to give an alternate proposal to rethink geographical categories and boundary studies. First, it examines the various meanings of the word ‘category’ as used in Jones’ paper. We then stress the importance of the processes involved in constructing spatialized and unspatialized categories as a central issue for social sciences. Using different examples such as the city and the nation state, we finally argue that the triad of reification—naturalization—fetishization is a good tool to analyse the social construction of geographical categories and boundaries.

The Mountain: A Political History from the Enlightenment to the Present

The Mountain offers an outstanding social and political science approach to mountains. Extending from the Enlightenment to the present day, the authors demonstrate an exceptional familiarity with the literature and recount how mountains, by embracing environment, development, and people, became an integral part of world politics following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and the United Nations designation of 2002 as the International Year of Mountains. This book is a tour de force—indispensable for anyone interested in mountains or anyone concerned about the future of our world. — Jack D. Ives, United Nations University

Mountain Regions: A Global Common Good?

Abstract The concept of “commons” is complex; it may relate to property regimes, rules of use and access, recognition of collective importance, or a mixture of these. This paper explores the arguments—developed by a growing epistemic community—to promote mountains as global common goods within the third category. This process may be viewed as starting with the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992, and continuing, in particular, through the International Year of Mountains 2002. It has been supported and advanced by focused publications, the establishment of global networks, and advances in technology. Specific arguments state that mountains are important because they provide ecosystem services that are vulnerable to climate change, are home to a significant part of humanity, including many who are disadvantaged, and are centers of cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity. Nevertheless, this proposal has been contested within the scientific community, and the implications for mountain people remain to be discussed.

The Institutionalization of Mountain Regions in Europe

Debarbieux B., Price M. F. and Balsiger J. The institutionalization of mountain regions in Europe, Regional Studies. Since the 1990s, many ‘project regions’ have emerged in Europe, a trend deriving from the tendency to adopt ad hoc institutions for specific spatial and environmental issues and the empowerment of diverse stakeholders who compete with the dominant role of states. This article addresses the building of institutionalized mountain regions in Europe, analysing how the specificity of mountain areas was considered in policies by states and the European Union, and later for transnational mountain ranges. Environmental and trans-boundary issues have been major driving forces for new institutional arrangements combining a territorial and environmental focus and complex networks of stakeholders.

The symbolic order of objects and the frame of geographical action: An analysis of the modes and effects of categorisation of the geographical world as applied to the mountains in the West

Societies cope with their geographical environment with the help of objects and categories of objects. Objects are cognitive symbols enabling societies to come to terms with the incertainties and complexity of the real. This text begins by presenting processes of objectivation and of categorisation of geographical reality. Then, it analyses how far categorisation of objects influences the practice and the transformation of corresponding reality. Coping with categorisation and transformation, it thus circumscribes the interactions between language, cognition and action by which geographical entities are transformed. It illustrates this thesis with the historical transformation of modes of apprehension of the mountains in the West and the parallel transformation of their usage and the modes of planning applied to them.

‘Mountain women’: silent contributors to the global agenda for sustainable mountain development

In this article, we examine the transnational and international discourses and initiatives focused on and/or carried out by the so-called ‘mountain women.’ Tracking the growing reference to ‘mountain women’, we analyze the way in which the construction and the claim of a gendered identity has developed within the general debate on the international recognition of the global importance of mountain environments that emerged about 20 years ago. Drawing on documents, a survey and interviews, our main objective is exploring how such a reference could lead to the making of an imagined community of ‘mountain women’ offering opportunities for political action. This article concludes that, though women are identified in international discourses as essential contributors to sustainable mountain development, the social identity ‘mountain women’ has not yet evolved into a collective identity around which political solidarities and strategies coalesce to ultimately ground collective action. Indeed, womens organizations have other themes on their agendas and are active at other scales apart from the global one. Indeed, few are willing to identify themselves as ‘mountain women.’ For the time being, ‘mountain women’ remain silent partners in the global agenda for sustainable mountain development.

Mountain Communities in Central Asia: Networks and New Forms of Governance

Abstract Mountains have been an intergovernmental and transnational issue of growing importance for 15 years. Thanks to global conferences such as the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 and regional treaties such as the Alpine Convention (1991), it is easier and increasingly useful for local communities to connect across borders. This growing will and capacity to be associated with intergovernmental initiatives is the result of a general trend in public affairs to bring together different stakeholders at various levels. However, the “voice” of mountain people sometimes remains outside debates and decision-making processes related to mountain development. The present article focuses on the emergence of a mountain community network in Central Asia. It addresses the issue of local governance and the international networking process to strengthen the “voice” of mountain people.

Hannah Arendt’s spatial thinking: an introduction

ABSTRACT Hannah Arendt’s spatial thinking: an introduction. Territory, Politics, Governance. Hannah Arendt is not among the philosophers most quoted by geographers and social scientists interested in the spatial dimension of social life; and when she is, authors typically cite one or two examples or concepts of her work, while neglecting to place her related propositions in the context of the various ways she refers to spatiality or territoriality. This paper aims to give a broad overview of her spatial thinking. More precisely, it presents the various spatial concepts Arendt uses (place, space, territory, world, location, etc.), and suggests that a tri-partite spatial ontology is at work behind her lexicon. Since such an ontological trilogy is never explicit in Arendt’s work, it is compared to the architecture of Arendt’s explicit theorization which is structured around different sets of concepts (identity/plurality; labour/work/action). Then, the paper explains that an ontological analysis of Arendt’s proposals allows us to understand the major issues or tragedies that she focused on as being related to tensions between different forms of spatiality. I conclude that Arendt’s extensive contributions in diverse conceptual and empirical fields are intrinsically spatially grounded.

How Can One Be a ‘Montagnard’? Social and Political Expressions of Modern Imaginaries of Territoriality

The historical variations in the definition of the notion of culture, along with the variations of so-called cultural geography are well known; these have led to the disapproval of naturalistic and ecological perspectives, and to a greater consideration of intersubjectivity and of political and social processes in the construction of identity. But this renewal of academic paradigms should not blind us to the fact that many of them sprung from contemporary societies as imaginary figures, enabling social and geographical forms to take place. In looking through identity and territorial tensions in mountain regions in the world, this chapter aims to show the presence and role of those imaginary figures in contemporary societies.