Introduction

2As a result, from 1990 to 2000, public authorities have encouraged these resorts to become more sustainable, and today they are urged to embrace transition for the sake of climate change adaptation and ecological transition (Bourdeau, 2021; Vlès and Hatt, 2019).

3First used in the 1970s and 1980s, the concept of transition has gradually replaced that of sustainable development since the 2000s (Villalba and Melin, 2022). Loorbach, et al. (2017) argue that the concept of “sustainability transitions” is more representative of a deep and structural transformation of systems. In practice, however, there are conflicting interpretations of this concept (Cottin-Marx et al. 2013; Larrère et al., 2016). While one transition advocates abandoning the dominant socioeconomic system in favor of alternative models (such as the Transition Town approach initiated by Hopkins), another calls for maintaining or even reinforcing the neoliberal socioeconomic model (such as the green growth strategy) (Oudot and d’Estoile, 2020).

4At the crossroads between the socio-technical and socio-institutional approaches (“Transition Management” (Geels, 2010; Köhler et al., 2019), and drawing on a territorial approach (Pachoud et al., 2022), this article proposes to analyze the transition of the socio-technical system of winter sports based on the perspective developed by Geels (2010). This perspective analyzes social transformations at three levels: exogenous landscape, regime and niche. Winter sports are analyzed as a socio-technical regime, i.e., as a system within a dominant regime, consisting of a set of technologies, actors and practices, infrastructures and institutions that shape the mountain winter tourism landscape. Structured by institutionalized rules and internalized norms, this regime has been at the heart of the mountain tourism system since the 1960s. According to systems theory, the winter sports regime, like any dominant regime, is characterized by barriers and by a certain path dependency that makes its transformation more complex (Geels, 2010; Koop, 2021). The transition of the socio-technical regime of winter sports can therefore result from the pressure exerted by the other two levels, the exogenous landscape (the macro-environment on which it is difficult to act locally: e.g. climate change, health, and energy crises) and innovation niches (new solutions developed by actors with values different from those of the dominant regime). Building on the work of Fuenfschilling and Truffer (2014), we will also look at the institutional tensions, conflicts, and inconsistencies (or “semi-coherences”) that permeate the dominant winter sports regime.

5Our goal is to capture how regions take ownership of the multiple imperatives of transition and to identify the forms of blockage, dependence, attachment, or contestation of the existing socio-technical regime. This analysis focuses on the role of public institutions and civil society, both in terms of associations and residents. It is based on Alpine resorts in the South of France.

7The first part examines the actors and the methods of ecological transition in ski resorts. The second part assesses the forms and possibilities of implementing this transition in the resorts of the Southern Alps from two perspectives: institutional initiatives and the initiatives developed by associations and local residents.

Institutional Experiments and Citizens’ Initiatives in the Transition of Ski Resorts

8Sustainable transitions studies have highlighted the diversity of approaches and views on environmental issues (Villalba and Melin, 2022). Two competing approaches stand out, one defending the primary role of local authorities, the other advocating a “bottom-up” transition based on local and socially innovative citizen initiatives (Hakimi Pradels et al., 2022). The coexistence of these approaches to transition can be observed in mountain areas.

Institutional Drivers of (Partial) Mountain Transition

10In parallel, the Mountain Future Action Plan has also contributed to supporting the existing socio-technical regime rooted in winter sports. The plan thus reflects a form of “semi-coherence” (Fuenfschilling and Truffer, 2014) that, for the sake of a certain vision of transition, reinforces the socio-technical regime that focuses on maintaining ski resort facilities and even reinforcing them through technical processes, particularly with regard to artificial snow. On the one hand, transition is seen as a territorial development of tourism: the scope of the destination complements that of the resort (François and Billet, 2010; Hatt, 2021). On the other hand, it is viewed as an approach based on the diversification of activities without questioning the foundations of the resort’s economic model based on winter sports, growth and expansion. These transitions continue to be subject to the “AIE!” (“Automotive-Real Estate-Artificial Snowmaking”) syndrome identified by Bourdeau (2008). Indeed, cars remain the preferred means of access to resorts, despite the fact that transportation accounts for an average of 66% of resort GHG emissions (Ademe, 2022). Similarly, real estate development is still ongoing, as is the use of artificial snow (Fablet, 2015; Berard-Chenu, 2021).

11Alongside this institutionally driven transition, alternative experiences are beginning to emerge in the form of social innovations, personal initiatives, activism in collective networks, and transformative practices (Villalba and Melin, 2022).

Civic Initiatives for a (different) Type of Resort Transition

12The relationship between citizen initiatives and institutions is multifaceted and constantly changing and can be summarized according to the typology proposed by Bourg (in CGDD, 2019) as “making do with the system”, “helping the system to evolve”, “changing the system”, or “abolishing the system”.

15In the mountains, social innovation has also led to the development of “creative action” (Bourdeau, 2021) on the margins, embodying a “counter-society” model that aims to “change the system” (CGDD, 2019) and constitute “niches” (spaces for radical innovation) according to Geels (2010). This creative action is driven by both practitioners (Corneloup, 2023; Bonnemains and Claeys, 2023) and professional sectors (Bourdeau, 2021).

16Finally, in recent years, there have been group initiatives aimed primarily at “doing away with the system” (CGDD, 2019), such as the Zones à défendre in La Clusaz against the construction of an additional mountain reservoir, and in La Grave against the construction of a third ski lift (Chambru, 2023).

17We will now analyze the territorialization of the transition of ski resorts by examining resorts in the Southern Region. We will focus on the experiments promoted by official institutions as well as the initiatives of local residents and citizens in favor of the transition.

Paradoxes Inherent in the Regional Initiatives to Support Southern Alpine Resorts

18In order to understand how transition is incorporated in the ski resorts of the Southern Alps, we analyzed how this transition is taken into account in regional policies, in particular in the context of the regional contracts proposed to the resorts.

Strong Support for Ski Resorts until 2020

20Since the 2010s, transition has become an integral part of the regional institutional logic, in particular through the Espaces Valléens initiative, which promotes the diversification of activities. An analysis of the Espaces Valléens action plans (George et al., 2019) highlights the importance of diversifying the mountain tourism offer for the period 2014-2020 (53% of the programmed tourism actions). However, the funds allocated to the Espaces Valléens contracts were lower (1.7 million euros in 2019) than those allocated to the Stations de demain contracts (10 million euros per year) which received half of the funds allocated to the Mountain Plan.

23These policies thus largely contributed to ensuring the continuity of the socio-technical regime of winter sports supported by the ski-lift companies, revealing their dependence on ski slopes. This dependence is explained in part by the “symbolic attachment to the epic tale of ‘la-station-qui-sauve-la-montagne’” (the station that saves the mountain), by the income that many players still enjoy (real estate, ski instruction, retail), and by the ability of lobbies in the sector (Syndicat national des moniteurs de ski, Association nationale des maires de stations, Domaines skiables de France...) to maintain the status quo (Bourdeau, 2021). Indeed, these actors were present at the “Altitude 2023” mountain meetings held in the south of France on March 9, 2023 to reiterate the importance of maintaining skiing and ski resorts. As Geels (2010) shows, the existing regimes are structured by corporatist networks, with a strong interdependence between the industry and political decision-makers. This is true in the mountains, where the winter sports sector is the main provider of employment in resort communities.

A Half-Hearted Transition since 2021

24In the Southern Alps, the Climsnow report commissioned by the Southern Region from KPGM in 2021 shows that the production of artificial snow only partially compensates for the vagaries of natural snow cover. The results of this study, launched as a prelude to the region’s new “Mountain Plan”, coupled with the energy crisis of 2022, may well have paved the way for “early transition” strategies (Métral, 2021) for certain resorts, leading them to plan the closure of their lifts and equipment, as was the case for Métabief in the Jura. According to a representative of the southern region, the issue of energy transition for resorts “was on people’s minds, but it’s true that when you’re up against the wall, you start to implement things [...] Politicians would no longer accept projects that were not efficient in terms of ecology and energy efficiency.” The energy crisis was therefore an incentive for an ecological transition. This led to a change in regional support policies for mountain regions in 2021. However, the impact of this change remains somewhat unsatisfactory.

26The institutionally led transition of the Southern Alps resorts is part of a green growth approach that does not challenge the socio-technical system of winter sports. But what can be said about the initiatives promoted by associations and residents?

Is Civil Society the Bearer of an Alternative Transition?

Associative Initiatives Driving Transition

27In the Southern Alps, several explicit or implicit citizen movements have emerged in recent years within the logic of transition. In our areas of study, several approaches stand out.

28In Ubaye, the Effects of Climate Change in Ubaye (ECCU) group, created in 2018, makes science more accessible to the general public to help them “reflect on the effects of climate change on the future of the territory and proposes courses of action to promote adaptation and mitigation”. ECCU is run by Séolane, a “university center for social experimentation and scientific mediation” (Schoeny, 2022). In addition to its annual conference, the group has shared the latest environmental reports on the Ubaye valley with all local elected representatives in a bid to raise their awareness of the challenges of territorial transition.

31While still modest, these initiatives are helping to “bring about change in the system” or even to “change the system” (CGDD, 2019). What, then, can be said about the residents of resort communities?

An Attachment to Skiing and a Timid Ecological Transition for Certain Residents

32National surveys have revealed growing public support for environmental concerns while highlighting discrepancies between discourse and practice and conflicting aspirations (Sesso and Hébel, 2019; Coulangeon et al. 2023). With regard to the transition issues facing mountain resorts, a survey of a small sample of primary (n=26) and secondary (n=45) residents of the municipality of Dévoluy (N=71) reveals similar trends.

33Environmental quality, employment, and economic activity (62 and 56 respondents, respectively) were identified as priorities for the community by the residents surveyed. Maintaining skiing was supported by 60 respondents, although 53 of them noted a decrease in snow cover.

34The desire to maintain skiing in Dévoluy was most strongly expressed by downhill skiers, who remained skeptical about climate change and diminishing snow cover. Most of these respondents were secondary residents. Conversely, non-skiers tended to place little or no priority on preserving skiing in Dévoluy and noted a decline in snow cover, which they attributed to climate change. These were mainly primary residents (Fig. 3).

Created by Claeys, software. Sphinx. Source Pernin (2022)

35These results are similar to those obtained by Bonnemains (2015), who highlighted how climate skepticism affects adherence to the ski resort model in Savoie, and to those obtained by GDTM master’s students from ski resort users in the Céüse massif, whose analysis highlighted how alpine skiing influences these users’ attachment to ski resorts (Bonnemains and Claeys, 2023).

36However, when asked “If you were required to make major changes to your lifestyle in order to adapt to/mitigate climate change, under what conditions would you accept them?”, only seven of the respondents said they were unwilling to accept radical changes. While only eight respondents said they would accept these changes regardless, 56 were willing to accept them under certain conditions. A total of 11 respondents linked their acceptance of changes to some kind of compensatory logic (more free time, greater solidarity, or financial savings), while 13 said that their acceptance would depend on their participation in collective decisions about these changes. Finally, 32 respondents said that they would only accept lifestyle changes if the environmental burden was shared fairly (Figure 4).

37Secondary residents were less likely than primary residents to accept lifestyle changes in the name of climate change adaptation. If they did, they were more likely to demand compensatory measures or an equitable distribution of effort. In our sample, secondary residents were more financially privileged than primary residents (80% and 20%, respectively, had household incomes above 4,000 euros per month).

38The link between willingness to contribute to environmental efforts and a sense of justice is well documented. Candau and Dedrève (2021) have shown that certain policies tend to place a greater burden of environmental effort on less privileged populations. Our initial exploratory results are consistent with these findings, which should nevertheless be tested in future surveys that capture the diversity of Alpine territories.

Conclusion

39The analysis presented here, which focuses on the Southern Alps, highlights the “semi-coherence” of transition policies related to winter tourism in the mountains. Although the logic of equipping ski resorts has not been questioned, the socio-technical regime of winter sports has allowed the emergence of transitional approaches. The shift from discourse (guidelines and calls for projects) to action (funding applied for and received) reveals a shift from demands for change-oriented transitions to achievements that reinforce the socio-technical model of winter sports. This socio-political attachment to the model of resorts and ski area equipment goes hand in hand with a technophile and mono-economic conservatism and reveals a certain form of path dependency (Geels, 2010; Berard-Chenu, 2021).

41Civil society, however, remains divided. While collective initiatives have been instrumental in the emergence of territorial transition projects, their actions and demands differ not only in terms of their initial intentions, but also in terms of what they have actually achieved.

42Lastly, the exploratory survey carried out in Dévoluy suggests that the difficulty of abandoning the winter sports model is evident for some residents, especially for the high-income secondary residents who enjoy downhill skiing. However, other residents surveyed were willing to abandon the resort model and to contemplate lifestyle changes, particularly some of the moderate- to low-income primary residents in the sample. Given the small size of our sample, these results should be interpreted with caution and may need to be confirmed by larger surveys. Nevertheless, our analyses reveal an uneven acceptance of environmental efforts that raises questions about an equitable contribution to climate change adaptation.