240526 SE From bounded localities to vertical globalisation (P4) (2020W)

Aims:
The course provides a comprehensive overview and critical discussion of research on and in high altitude regions in Europe in anthropology. It pursues two aims: first, to stimulate and foster anthropological research on current life in mountain regions in Europe and beyond; second, to learn about the relevance that research of high altitude places has for anthropology generally, and environmental studies, particularly.

Contents:
Sharing high altitude as a main feature, mountains in Europe, like elsewhere, are highly heterogeneous places in social, cultural, economic and ecological respects. In this seminar we deal with the history and the current state of anthropological research on and in mountain regions in Europe. We learn about the past and current topical, theoretical and methodological approaches to mountainous livelihood in Europe and contextualise them within the changes of anthropology's self-understanding. Anthropologists had for a long time researched people and places in high altitudes through the lenses of small agricultural communities living in bounded localities. Today they acknowledge the fluidity between the rural and the urban and the manifold global dynamics shaping mountainous livelihood. Especially global phenomena like tourism, migration, and climate change have provoked not only deep social, economic and environmental changes in high altitudes but also significant theoretical and topical perspectives in anthropology as in its neighbouring disciplines.

Methods:

We will draw on a broad range of ethnographic and methodological illustrations of studying social, economic, cultural and environmental issues in high altitude regions in Europe. The teacher will provide a sound introduction to the seminar topic. Students will regularly read texts, research additional texts, participate in our discussions, give oral presentations, comment on films, texts and others’ oral presentations, and write a final seminar paper. We will learn to critically engage with the respective methodological, theoretical and ethnographic approaches.