Productive Mountains

For a long time, European mountain areas have produced goods in relation with their specific environmental features. Mines and forests, meadows, pastures and streams have permitted the export of minerals and timber, agricultural and manufacturing products, as well as handcrafts, to the surrounding plains. Production has sustained local communities, while modelling the landscape. During the 20th century, many mountain areas had to deal with more competitive surrounding areas. More recently, mountains have been rediscovered mainly as place of production of environmental, tourist, cultural ecosystem services.

Today, confronted with globalization and climate change, we may question whether mountains are going, once again, to produce goods. What kind of goods? How can they be recognized and become visible? What connections are there between material and immaterial production and mountains environment, cultures, socio-spatial specificity? What interactions between the mountains and their surrounding areas?

The conference will deal with some priority topics:

Specificity of producing goods and services in the mountains, cultural production included;
Landscapes and places of production;
Actors (producers, consumers, local and extra-local recipients) and strategies of production;
Flows, networks, production chains and energy, infrastructure and culture exchange within mountain areas or in relation to other surrounding and metropolitan areas;
Public policies and development actions.

Through theoretical contributions and presentations of case studies, special focus will be given to processes and transformations which occurred in the past, to current dynamics and to design strategies and policies for the future.

PARTICIPANTS

Due to their specific nature, mountain areas require cross and interdisciplinary approaches. Hence, the conference has a strong multidisciplinary character, being addressed to scholars and researchers, institutes and research centres within the fields of geography, history, economy, social sciences, environmental sciences, earth sciences and design disciplines, with the aim of sharing knowledge and producing new interdisciplinary research questions.

The final round-table will open the debate among researchers, experts, public institutions and local agencies, producers, and citizens, on topics such as products, services, actors and production chains of the mountains.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

The conference is open for participation to everyone interested in the topics.

Mountains scientists are invited to contribute with an oral communication, submitting an abstract of max 3,000 characters or 500 words in one of the official languages of the conference (Italian, English), compiling the online form (LINK), including a maximum of 5 bibliographic references and a brief biography of the authors. The Scientific Committee of the conference will select the best proposals and include them in the conference sessions. The selected contributions of the authors registered to the conference will be included in the official conference schedule and will be published in the abstract book with ISBN. A volume containing the Conference Proceedings will follow.

The participants are required to pay an entry fee of € 80 (€ 40 for students under 35). The fee includes lunches, dinners, coffee breaks, the Friday fieldtrip and the coach transfers between Venice and Comelico valley. The abstract book will be distributed to participants for free.

IMPORTANT DATES

20 November 2017 – Call for papers

20 January 2018 - Deadline call for abstract

20 February 2018 - Acceptance of abstracts

31 March 2018 – Final program

30 April – Deadline for registration (after the deadline, registration is subject to availability)

20-21-22 June 2018 – The conference

31 October 2018 – Paper submission for the Conference Proceedings

LANGUAGES OF THE CONFERENCE

The official languages of the conference are Italian and English. There will be simultaneous translation at the plenary sessions and at the round-table.

CONFERENCE VENUE and FIELD-TRIP

The conference will be held in Venice, at the IUAV University of Venice, and in Comelico valley, at the headquarters of the Foundation “Centro Studi Transfrontaliero del Comelico e Sappada. Comelico valley is a disadvantaged area of the North-Eastern Dolomites included in the National Strategy for the “Aree Interne”, placed at the national border between Italy and Austria.

PROVISIONAL SCHEDULE

Thursday 21/06/2018

morning registration, introduction, first session

lunch

afternoon second session, transfer Venice-Comelico

dinner

Friday 22/06/2018

morning fieldtrip "Productive dolomites"

lunch

afternoon third session, round table

dinner

Saturday 23/06/2018

VENUE

Venice is well connected by train or plane with the main Italian and European cities. Comelico valley is 150 km far from Venice, and can be reached by public transport (train + bus). Registered participants can use the free transfer from Venice to Comelico and viceversa, for free.