Crafting Social Change: Imagining Ecological Transition in the Alps.

In the Alps, economic and ecological uncertainties, coupled with public debates and governmental policies, have rapidly propagated the idea that ecological transition represents a necessary shift for the viability of local economies and ways of life. However, propositions on how such changes should be achieved are still modest and tend to ignore the ways these discourses circulate and are understood at the ground level. Based on a comparative ethnographic research project in the Swiss, French and Italian Alps, this essay explores ecological transition as a peculiar form of desired social change within Alpine contexts. In particular, it resorts to the notions of crafting and imagining in order to explore emerging social worlds and transition-related practices, and to describe the attitudes of people supporting change in local social spaces. In dealing with local forms of cultural imagination, the essay shows how narratives of change and transition stem from meanings and memories attached to the Alpine-ness and mountain-ness of the three explored settings. Moreover, in considering the position assigned to the authors when in the field, it explores the effects ethnographic research could have when documenting crafted, going-to-be worlds.