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Alexander von Humboldt écrivait que « l’agroupement des montagnes, puisqu’il divise la surface de la terre en bassins ou en vastes cirques » n’était pas sans influence « sur les mœurs, la forme des institutions et les haines nationales » (Debarbieux, 2012, p. 13). Si cette formulation peut nous sembler quelque peu surannée, il n’en demeure pas moins vrai que la réflexion offerte par Alexander von Humboldt résonne avec l’actualité récente d’espaces de montagnes qui se voient aujourd’hui inscrits dans le jeu des politiques migratoires européennes et du contrôle des frontières. En prenant appui sur des récits de vie collectés auprès d’habitant·es mobilisé·es en faveur de l’accueil des exilé·es, la réflexion construite à partir du cas ariégeois vise à dévoiler une territorialité complexe qui, selon les espaces considérés, produit des formes de mobilisations singulières et distinctes, héritées d’histoires migratoires passées, de l’engagement de néo-ruraux et de réseaux sociaux qui relient montagnes, vallées, villes de piémont et agglomération toulousaine. Cet article souligne l’originalité d’un refuge ariégeois dont l’observation permet de relativiser des dispositifs de contrôle des migrations par le jeu de mise à distance qu’autorisent autant la topographie que l’espace social du militantisme en faveur des exilé·es. Alexander von Humboldt wrote that ‘the arrangement of mountains… divide the surface of the earth into basins or vast cirques…and influence the range of cultures, habits, institutional forms and national hates’ (Debarbieux, 2012, p.13). While this formulation may seem outdated, von Humboldt’s reflection remarkably still resonates more than a century and a half later with recent events in mountainous areas affected by European migration policies and border control. Drawing on the life histories of refugee activists in the French department of Ariège, we reveal a complex territoriality that, depending on the spaces considered, produces singular and distinct forms of mobilisation, inherited from past migratory experiences, the engagement of neo-rurals and the social networks linking mountains, valleys, piedmont towns and the Toulouse conurbation. We highlight the uniqueness of the Ariège ‘refuge’, where mechanisms of migration control are relativised through a distancing enabled by both the topography and the social space of exile activism.

Alexander von Humboldt wrote that ‘the arrangement of mountains… divide the surface of the earth into basins or vast cirques…and influence the range of cultures, habits, institutional forms and national hates’ (Debarbieux, 2012, p.13). While this formulation may seem outdated, von Humboldt’s reflection remarkably still resonates more than a century and a half later with recent events in mountainous areas affected by European migration policies and border control. Drawing on the life histories of refugee activists in the French department of Ariege, we reveal a complex territoriality that, depending on the spaces considered, produces singular and distinct forms of mobilisation, inherited from past migratory experiences, the engagement of neo-rurals and the social networks linking mountains, valleys, piedmont towns and the Toulouse conurbation. We highlight the uniqueness of the Ariege ‘refuge’, where mechanisms of migration control are relativised through a distancing enabled by both the topography and the social space of exile activism.

International audience; Drawing on our findings in the Western Pyrenees, this article aims to bring a better understanding of attitudes among local players, mainly elected representatives but also residents, to change - especially climate change - and how these changes are likely to affect the vulnerability to risks of mountain areas in the shorter or longer term. Vulnerability depends not only on the nature, scale and intensity of the changes to which a territorial system is exposed, but also on its sensitivity and capacity for adaptation (IPCC, 2001 and 2014). It is also exacerbated by scientific uncertainties as to how the climate is evolving and over the risks that arise, which are particularly evident at the local level. We show that difficulties in grasping current and future changes add to the vulnerability of the areas investigated.

L’appel a numero thematique de la Revue de Geographie Alpine invitait a interroger le role des imaginaires dans la place que tiennent les montagnes et les societes montagnardes des Suds dans la mondialisation touristique. Cette derniere peut etre definie comme le processus historique de diffusion du tourisme dans le monde. A la fois facteur et produit des differentes mondialisations qui se sont affirmees a partir du 19eme siecle, le tourisme a aussi ete l’agent d’une mondialisation specifique...

This article presents a Rocky Mountain valley in the state of Montana (USA), a central symbolic space of the American West that is heavily marked by the identity-charged notions of “wilderness” and “frontier”. With a rich history in mining, logging and ranching benefitting pioneers, the Blackfoot Valley today is an excellent example of the frontline between this extractive history (which is not entirely past) and nature conservation, a genuinely active eco-frontier initiated at the federal, state, local and individual levels. Varying representations and appropriations of mountain areas tend to create socio-economic divisions in the valley’s population. An entirely private, site-specific art project (Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild) creates the possibility of offering an alternative resource to be shared by eco-gentrifiers and a local population adjusting to a post-extractive order, and indeed its site-specific works resonate with both the valley’s mining past and its untamed nature. Does this project mean that there are shared values in this rural space undergoing strong social change? And although it does make it possible to spatially reconcile a mining frontier on its way to heritagisation with a vibrant eco-frontier, will it really help reconcile mountain-dwelling populations with very different socio-economic trajectories over the long term?

International audience