Destination Grand Labo: imagining tomorrow’s mountains in an immersive workshop

Geography training at the Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB) is largely based on field experience. For several years now, the Master 1 Geographies and Mountains program has included a week’s immersion in a mountain region, to bring students from diverse backgrounds face-to-face with the realities of the issues addressed during their three years of undergraduate study, as seen in a mountain context.

For the 2022-2023 academic year, we wanted to go one step further by involving the entire incoming M1 class in a recently launched collaborative research-action project, the “Grand [La]Bo” program. This program brings together the political and economic players and the population of Grand Bornand with USMB teaching and research staff and their students. The aim is to imagine, on the basis of a scientifically established inventory, the possible ways and faces of the transitions announced to deal with the eco-climatic crisis, the problematic effects of which are now undeniable and particularly sensitive in these mid-mountain territories.

During their four-day stay at the end of September 2022, the 45 M1 Geographies and Mountains students worked in small groups with local stakeholders on a dozen themes related to the Grand-[La]bo issue, paving the way for more in-depth research on some of the key themes later on.