Communities’ agency and narratives in the care of low mountain Heritage landscapes

Abstract ID: 3.14547 | Not reviewed | Requested as: Talk | TBA | TBA

Simona Bravaglieri (1)
Duna, Viezzoli (1); Anna, de la Torre Fornell (1); Francesca, De Simone (1); Andrea Carlo, Lo Verso (1); Monica, Calcagno (1)

(1) University Ca' Foscari of Venice, San Giobbe, Cannaregio 873, 30121, Venice, Italy, IT

Categories: Anthropology, Conservation, Culture, Equality, Sustainable Development, Tourism
Keywords: Heritage, Commons, Care, Place-based solutions, Participation

Categories: Anthropology, Conservation, Culture, Equality, Sustainable Development, Tourism
Keywords: Heritage, Commons, Care, Place-based solutions, Participation

Abstract

The contribution intends to highlight how the collective imagination of communities living and valuing low mountain areas (“montagna di mezzo”) is perfectly mirroring both challenges and opportunities for non-UNESCO cultural landscapes to survive and thrive. Inner Areas of northern-eastern Italy, in Belluno province, where also part of the World Heritage list Dolomites are present, incarnate the challenges of depopulation, skepticism towards the institutions, and strive for social and environmental sustainability. The impossibility of taking care of landscapes due to the loss of resources (human, economic, political, etc.) within the pressure of local and global processes, show how the role of the community is mostly needed for a shared ideal of Heritage based on Commons, that are very often abandoned, thus necessarily in the shared care of all. Naturalistic values, knowledge transfer, intangible community practices are key expressions of mountain Heritage that still constitute the basis for (the few) social interactions much more than in other environments. These elements are still essential for innovative solutions for just environmental and social transition, seeing mountains as laboratories for the future. Consciousness is needed for mountain heritage values, care and knowledge to be shared at the community level, but also with foreigners – both new mountain inhabitants and tourists. Through a critical discourse analysis conducted on qualitative semi-structured interviews to decision makers and policy-makers, conscious entrepreneurs, communities leaders, volunteers and activists, young groups have highlighted existing transformative values, conflicts and negotiations. Narrative comparison has proved deep discrepancies between the heritagised high Dolomites mountains, playground for adventures and ski performances, and low mountains, where communities strive for finding their space and their sense of place and its transmission. The outcome gives light to another mountain, still building on a sense of development and pursuit of valuable models for semi-abandoned environments, with more realistic images for the systemic interaction between humans and landscapes.