This session sets out to question how capable outlying areas are of adapting and their possibilities of developing over time, by focusing on mountainous contexts particularly affected by global climate and economic changes. As such they have a symbolic value as areas-laboratories of change, and represent heuristic study sites for understanding the change in the relationship with the environment and their role in territorial dynamics. 

During 54th Annual Colloquium Cities and regions in a changing Europe: challenges and prospects, Athens (5-7 July 2017), LabEx ITEM (LabEx Innovation and Mountain Territories) organize a special session (session 18) called :  Outlying areas’ pathways of adaptation. A comparative approach of vulnerable territorial contexts.

Argument

This session sets out to question how capable outlying areas are of adapting and their possibilities of developing over time, by focusing on mountainous contexts particularly affected by global climate and economic changes. As such they have a symbolic value as areas-laboratories of change, and represent heuristic study sites for understanding the change in the relationship with the environment and their role in territorial dynamics. Highly inspiring and symbolic, mountains' scenic landscapes and the recreational potential they harbour are very specific assets which also benefit nearby big cities. At the same time, their economic and environmental vulnerability brings about social and political forms of mobilisation where old territorial issues must be weighed against the new, between infrastructure and urban planning projects, environmental protection requirements and alternative pilot schemes. Mountain areas are thus mulling over the changes affecting centre-outlying area relationships: what new services are provided by non-urban zones, how can these be measured and promoted, should relationships of reciprocity become possible, and under what conditions? This specific context evokes the bigger picture of territorial contexts where the link between economic and environmental vulnerability and territorial appeal is offering up new forms of adaptation. In these adaptation strategies, what role do environmental factors play alongside economic organisation? Do environmental amenities – which could also be called living environments or landscapes – help to reconstruct the socio-spatial segregation processes observed to date? Do they reduce social inequalities? Likewise, irrespective of their scale and whether or not they are binding, do territorial planning strategies take these new city-mountain relationships on board? With what view taken of the sustainability of development? 

This session is being organised by the ITEM (Mountain Territories and Innovation) Labex (laboratory of excellence), whose purpose it is to analyse, through a multidisciplinary approach, the fate of mountain territories grappling with the issues of global change. It is aiming to present an international comparison of these areas, a comparison between different environments and an assessment of the significance of territorial and environmental contexts in the pathways and forms of change. 

Contributions submitted could therefore report on work and research conducted specifically on mountain areas, with closer or weaker ties with city areas. They could also look at other types of territory, on the coast or preferentially marked by metropolisation processes, in which large urban areas develop and interconnect further through population growth and expanding services. This will enable comparison of varied territorial contexts and therefore a perspective to be gained, raising questions over what is specific about the mountain in the forms of adaptation and resilience observed and analysed. Is there an environment effect, and if so, how do ideologies, idealities and ecosystems tie in with one another, or, on the other hand, do stakeholders' and territories' forms and processes of adaptation merely demonstrate other structural determinants and at other scales? 

This session sets out to question how capable marginal or peripheral regions are of adapting and their possibilities of developing over time, by focusing on mountainous contexts particularly affected by global climate and economic changes. As such they have a symbolic value as spatial laboratories of change, and represent heuristic study sites for understanding the change in the relationship with the environment in territorial dynamics. Highly inspiring and symbolic, mountains' scenic landscapes and the recreational potential they harbour are very specific assets which also benefit nearby big cities. At the same time, their economic and environmental vulnerability brings about social and political forms of mobilisation where old territorial issues must be weighed against the new, between infrastructure and urban planning projects, environmental protection requirements and alternative pilot schemes. Mountain areas are thus mulling over the changes affecting centre-periphery area  relationships: what new services are provided by non-urban zones, how can these be measured and promoted, should relationships of reciprocity become possible, and under what conditions? This specific context evokes the bigger picture of territorial contexts where the link between economic and environmental vulnerability and territorial appeal is offering up new forms of adaptation. In these adaptation strategies, what role do environmental factors play alongside economic organisation? Do environmental amenities – which could also be called living environments or landscapes – help to reconstruct the socio-spatial segregation processes observed to date? Do they reduce social inequalities? Likewise, irrespective of their scale and whether or not they are binding, do territorial planning strategies take these new city-mountain relationships on board? With what view taken of the sustainability of development? 

Submission guidelines

I submit my abstract

Proposals can be made either in English or in French.

The call for papers for the 2017 Conference will be open til March 1st, 2017.

All abstract submissions must be made electronically on the website http://asrdlf2017.com.

Coordination

• Marie-Christine Fourny, UMR Pacte, Université Grenoble-Alpes, 
• Emmanuelle George-Marcelpoil, Laboratoire DTM IRSTEA Grenoble, 
• Kirsten Koop, UMR Pacte, Université Grenoble-Alpes