Mountain areas have been and still are very relevant to industrial production both regionally and globally. The process of industrialisation of the mountains varied greatly in time and space, from the early hydropower-based exploitation of the European Alps (Dalmasso 2007, Gebhardt 1990) in the late nineteenth century to the most recent developments in mountain regions of the global South (Perlik 2019). Due to abundant natural resources, mountain areas usually host intensive and invasive industrial activities linked to raw materials extraction, use, and primary processing. However, a certain potential for lighter, greener and digital-oriented industries is locally emerging, especially in the European context, fostered by specific regional development strategies and re-industrialization policies.
The presence of diverse types and forms of industrial production has generated and generates, in mountain contexts, productive landscapes with unique features and dynamics, hardly comparable to those traditionally incorporated or found in dense urban areas (Modica 2022). The spatial and functional interaction between industrial activities and semi-natural environments, also considering the complex and uneven morphology of mountain valleys, often translates into highly contrasting land use patterns with a very low inherent transformability. In some cases, the local exploitation of natural resources and the setting up of industrial processing facilities in previously rural or remote mountain areas fostered some forms of urbanisation (Perlik 2019), ranging from basic workers housing estates to entire new industrial centres, thus changing the face and the fate of entire valleys. In other cases, industry developed as an autonomous technological unit in highly sensitive natural settings, such as in the case of high-altitude hydropower energy complexes or mining complexes (Dalmasso et al 2011, Weilacher & Modica 2019). In general, mountain productive landscapes are designed to exist according to a clear functionalist approach towards the hosting environment, in which the materialistic exploitation of it (the mountain is manipulated for the economic purpose of production) is accompanied by a tangible detachment from the same (the industry as a technological, self-standing ‘machine’).
Regardless of their origin, founding principles or typology, these productive landscapes are increasingly involved in the current socio-ecological transition, intended as a crucial transition of our economies and societies to a condition of sustainability – by which we mean the possibility of preserving human well-being through time subject to the constraints represented by ecological factors, and where mountain areas represent the most relevant testing ground at the global scale. Whether and how this epochal transition is impacting on industrial landscapes in mountain regions is still a very open question, the one this call for papers would like to address.
Impacts can be measured in terms of management of problematic legacies, such as in the case of deindustrialising mountain communities facing socio-economic decline and widespread environmental degradation (Müller et al, 2006; Migliorati, 2021). Are these local communities really less empowered and equipped than urban ones when it comes to dealing with post-industrial legacies, as it seems to be, or maybe they just need to follow a different approach to recovery and revitalization? The structural limitations of remote and peripheral territories and communities can indeed represent a win-win situation for testing innovative approaches to foster alternative and sustainable development paths. Another way the socio-ecological transition might impact mountain productive landscapes relates to the necessary transformation of industry-related spatial patterns, such as mountain-urban systems originated from or attached to specific industrial activities – especially if still operating (Sega & Perlik, 2022). Considering their firm embedment in the mountain's fragile environment, how would these settlements and urban morphologies respond to the ecological transition? Furthermore, the impact of transition can also be considered in terms of new forms/formats of production that could take place in mountain areas, according to emerging and increasingly affirming paradigms of circularity, just transition and green re-industrialization of mature economies. Will brand new productive landscapes appear in mountain regions? Will these develop in a symbiotic way with the specific mountain environment, differently from the past?
Expected contributions should explore, present, and discuss the correlation between transition-led change and productive landscapes in mountain areas regarding their spatial, social, economic, and environmental transformation. Interdisciplinary approaches and contributions are very welcome since the evoked transformation occurs through different processes and forms. Interpretative reading keys may be on specific industrial sectors (such as extraction and mining, heavy or light industries), on their spatial configurations (including urbanisation processes such as company towns and mountain industrial settlements), or even process-oriented (shrinkage, abandonment, or redevelopment, including the related legacies or conflicts). Geographically speaking, contributions presenting and discussing specific cases from mountain regions worldwide (outside of European borders) are very welcome, though a special place would be reserved for the European context.
Three thematic axes frame this call for articles. The first focuses on material and immaterial legacies of industrialisation in the mountains, perceived through the lens of landscapes as a container of social, economic and environmental images and processes. The second one deals with the production of space connected to mountain industries, that is, those physical transformations occurring and occurred in remote territories, which often involve forms of urbanisation or at least anthropisation. Finally, the third one focuses on emerging forms and future concepts of mountain productive landscapes in relation to the circular economy and just transition paradigms.
The industrialisation of mountain areas has left a lasting imprint, raising significant challenges and opportunities for research. Limestone, coal, timber and other resources have been exploited for centuries, being the main development engine for otherwise unknown localities while leading to profound social, environmental and economic consequences. Many of these old industrialised mountain communities or regions are now experiencing a more or less marked decline of their industrial base due to delocalisation, obsolescence or rising ecological concerns (Modica 2019).
Shrinkage, abandonment or difficult redevelopment processes are common issues across several post-industrial landscapes in mountain areas, raising complex questions about the legacy and conflicts associated with de-industrialisation in these specific territorial realities (Storm, 2016; Migliorati, 2021). How local communities in mountain regions are dealing with post-industrial legacies, either sociocultural, economic or environmental? Which role industrial heritage, meant as a permanent landscape change, plays or might play in this healing/recovering process? Which strategies, interventions or initiatives on post-industrial legacy management in mountain areas can be sought? In the framework of the current socio-ecological transition, dealing with such a problematic legacy – which involves both material elements (contaminated brownfield sites, derelict spaces and architectures) and immaterial ones (forgotten cultural heritage, local identity and imaginary) – requires interdisciplinary approaches mixing spatial planning with social and environmental sciences, as well as innovative community-led participatory processes to regenerate a sense of place (Modica & Solero, 2022).
This first axe invites contributions that deal with the post-industrial legacy of the mountains, addressing specific sociocultural, ecological or economic issues connected to deindustrialisation and its ‘daily’ management by affected local and regional communities. Article proposals might investigate post-industrial legacy from either a historical (chronological) perspective, discussing how the legacy was produced in the recent past, or by problematising the actual situation through a multi-thematic reading of dynamics and facts.
The second hypothesis for this call explores the impact of industrialisation on the production of space and its long-term influence on urbanisation processes in mountain landscapes. The starting point is that, by occurring in often remote regions, these industrial-related territorial transformations often generate specific forms of peripheral urbanisation (Perlik, Messerli & Bätzing, 2001). For instance, the establishment of towns was directly linked to the organisational level of the productive site, thus leading to planned communities or dispersed urbanisation flourishing nearby. Often settled as either planned or spontaneous temporary working camps, these settlements gradually matured into established urban centres that directly served the adjacent production sites, offering welfare services generally controlled by industrial capital at first and more democratic forms of organisation afterwards (De Almeida Santos, 2022). Urban expressions of industrialised areas in mountain regions are both a historical phenomenon and a contemporary global reality characterised by a continuous resource extraction and industrial production cycle.
While the urbanisation of productive habitats has a longstanding history rooted in land exploitation and periods of industrial and technological advancement, nowadays, the influence of industrial processes in mountainous areas is resurfacing, fueled by new demands for raw materials and growing concerns over ecological crises alongside social and economic instability. Which forms of urban development have persisted in mountain production areas, and what insights can we gain from them? Can we envision a counter-project that reimagines mountain production areas and creates new forms of sustainable living in response to the socio-ecological transition?
In light of these challenges, this thematic axe aims to explore and critically read the morpho-typologies of industrial urbanisation in the mountains. This includes but is not limited to, examining company towns, mining settlements, agroindustrial hubs, logistic centres, and other territorial manifestations linked to productive processes. Moreover, proposals could explore how the political and decision-making strategic decisions of leading companies in these urban areas have profoundly shaped and still shape urban developments and influenced urban governance frameworks.
In the last decade, the EU Regulations (such as the Just Transition and the European Critical Materials Act) have been moving towards ensuring that the transition towards a low-carbon economy and sustainable development is fair and equitable. Mountain regions are historically resource-rich areas, serving as a territorial subject to understand the local consequences of the global paradigms for socio-ecological transition. The need for new raw materials could rise by 60% in resource extraction by 2060 (UNEP, 2024), and this trend seems to not align with the socio-ecological addressed challenges.
New processes with high ecological impact must be considered in areas with high environmental value. This functionalist approach to using nature seems conscious of its depletion and massive presence in the territory but detached from the landscape itself. The soil and environmental exploitation and degradation resulting from industrial activities clash with the growing demand for critical raw materials, and their role in the ecological transition makes these territories crucial to new environmental challenges on a global scale. Could the socio-ecological transition serve as a paradigm to confront new models of production and climate change-related issues in the context of mountain regions? Does the research of new, alternative, green resources exacerbate resource consumption, or does it support efforts toward a just transition?
Expected contributions to this thematic axe could address the paramount importance of striking a balance between industrial development and environmental conservation for the sustainable future of mountain areas. The imbalance between production consumption and socio-ecological transition, the material uses and the impact of such extractive activities in mountain regions, and the alternative scenarios for the extractive and productive mountain landscapes.
Dr. Marcello Modica is an urban and spatial planner (Polytechnic University of Milan) and PhD (Technical University of Munich). Currently he works as postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Udine, Polytechnic Department of Engineering and Architecture (DPIA). His research encompasses post-industrial landscape transformation and revitalization, territorial development in fragile and peripheral contexts as well as interdisciplinary research-by-design approaches in spatial planning. Between 2018 and 2021 he coordinated the EU Interreg project trAILs – Alpine Industrial Landscape Transformation. He is author and co-author, respectively, of Alpine Industrial Landscapes. Towards a new approach for brownfield redevelopment in mountain regions (2022) and Brownfield transformation in fragile territories. An Interreg-based action research (2022), both published by Springer.
Anna Karla De Almeida Santos (Brazil, 1990) is an architect urbanist and industrial historian, Doctoral Assistant at the Laboratory of Urbanism (LAB-U) at EPFL. Her work deals with industrial cities' historical and political implications and their productive habitats. Anna Karla is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie EPFLinnovators Fellow, conducting ongoing research on Conditions of Habitability in a Company Town under the guidance of Prof. Paola Viganò. Since 2020, Anna Karla has been a member of the Executive Board of the Habitat Research Center at EPFL and responsible for the Productive Habitats research field at the Research Center. Prior to her current roles, she held the position of a Fellow at US/ICOMOS, where she worked in the Office of Historic Preservation in San Antonio, Texas. She also served as a graduate assistant at the Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Geografiche e dell'Antichita' (DiSSGeA) at the University of Padova, Italy.
Article proposals, around 1,000 words in length, should be sent in either French (if the author is a native French speaker) or English (if the author’s mother tongue is any other language) by 1st November 2024 to Marcello Modica (marcello.modica@uniud.it), Anna Karla De Almeida Santos (anna.dealmeidasantos@epfl.ch) as well as the editorial team, addressed to Cristina Del Biaggio (cristina.del-biaggio@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr) and Maxime Frezat (m.frezat@protonmail.com).
Final articles are expected by 1st January 2025. Final articles must be submitted in one of the languages in which the review is published: Alpine languages (French, Italian, German, Slovenian), Spanish or English. The author must see to it that the article is to be translated into the second language after it has been assessed.
Publication of the articles is scheduled for September 2025.
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