When mountain research doesn’t hibernate

Mountain research knows no season. Who knows, perhaps the questions on your mind are already the subject of a research project? To kick off 2026, here’s a quick (and non-exhaustive) overview of some of the topics that have kept our researchers on their toes these short winter days.

In the humanities and social sciences, research questions everything that surrounds us: the evolution of practices, the interplay of players, the place of living things, the question of resources, controversies and conflicts, the trajectory of territories, reflections on the future…

Current affairs often invite themselves into the work of scientists, and vice versa. On December¹, just as Christmas trees were about to enter many homes, Adrien Baysse-Lainé, geographer at the Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), presented the many issues raised by Christmas tree cultivation at the Périscope in Lyon, based on a study carried out in the Morvan region: This was based on a study carried out in the Morvan region: the production areas and players in the sector, the logistical chains used to transport these trees to homes, and the territorial, economic, environmental and social issues linked to this seasonal production.

A little further south, in Puget-Théniers in the Maritime Alps, sociologist Mikaël Chambru (UGA) opened a discussion on the future of mountain territories following the screening of his film Transition – Un raid anthropologique dans le Queyras during the Leader 2025 program’s Plenary Assembly, organized on the theme of “Living well together in a territory in transition”.

Unsurprisingly, the issue of ski resort transition is omnipresent in winter. The British daily The Guardian recently devoted an article to “ghost” resorts, citing the research carried out by Pierre-Alexandre Métral (UGA) on abandoned ski resorts in France. In light of these resort closures, France Culture spoke to Hugues François, research engineer at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae), about the future of winter sports in the context of climate change.

A group of European scientists has just published The TranStat Cookbook: Recipes for Sustainable Mountain Resorts to help ski resorts make the transition. The result of a research project coordinated by Emmanuelle George (Inrae), a specialist in mountain tourism development and carried out in nine resorts in the Alpine arc – Megève and Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse in France – this document offers concrete guidelines for political decision-makers at European, Alpine and national levels.

Aware that transforming the economic model of resorts is an arduous task, often hampered by tensions and divergent interests – over water use, for example – researchers are proposing a utopian approach to imagining the resorts of the future. This is the approach described in an article published in The Conversation, based on workshops to create “postcards of the mountains in 2050” – proposed by Angèle Richard, Élodie Gardet and Romain Gandia of the Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB) – to stimulate the imagination and build a shared vision of a more desirable future. This work is in line with the themes of the Sustainable Tourism Chair at the Université Savoie Mont Blanc, as discussed by its Scientific Director Dominique Kreziak for Mountain Change Makers.
Information and communication science researcher Amélie Coulbaut-Lazzarini (UGA) is also working on the power of the imaginary, and has just published a book using storytelling as a ” bridge between fiction and reality, opening the way to desirable futures, to be built together “, in particular to question the relationship between people and their natural environment during mid-mountain outings. Her work brings together researchers from different disciplines and includes contributions from hikers.

The challenge of mobilizing the collective in mountain areas is also at the heart of the work of public law professor Jean-François Joye (USMB). Along with other researchers, he is looking at “communaux” – ancient systems of land ownership based on the collective management of local resources – which are little-known and have little legal recognition, despite offering numerous advantages for understanding the challenges of transition. Inspired by this research, the Mountain Wilderness association, in a recent article, calls for the development of these land commons, ” diplomatic tools for managing conflicts of use and for dialogue between humans and with the landscape “, whose rights holders are ” veritable sentinels of the living and essential players in thinking about the future of their own territories “.

In a perspective of transition, the relationship between humans and the rest of the living world – or “non-human” – is of increasing interest to humanities and social sciences research on mountains. In a collective work, researchers examine the impact of our mountain recreational activities on the environment and animals, and on the relationship between practitioners and the wild. They question this way of living together, at the crossroads of sociology, geography, ecology and nature management, following on from a research project led by sociologist Clémence Perrin-Malterre (USMB).

Others, however, remind us that the mountains are not just a place for leisure and discovery for everyone. In a context of increasingly militarized borders, it can also become the tomb of migrants. This was the point made by geographer Cristina Del Biaggio (UGA) at a conference organized by the Maison des sciences humaines Alpes on the Grenoble campus, looking back at the death of young Nigerian Blessing Matthew in the Durance on May 7, 2018. France Culture’s Interception magazine on January 11 was devoted to her story.

Further afield, a team of researchers takes us to the mountains of Namibia. During a six-week investigation led by geographer Mélanie Duval (USMB) and reported in the magazine L’Espace Politique, they sought to identify the contours and mechanisms of the semi-precious stone extraction chain, from their production territory to the windows of European, American or Asian luxury boutiques.

Wherever you look in the mountains, there are questions to be asked and research to be carried out. In today’s context of global change, while each discipline brings its own understanding, the intersection of these disciplines can shed light on complex situations. Far from being cut off from society, this “interdisciplinary” research is now being developed in conjunction with local stakeholders.

The illustration in this article is taken from the C’est chaud pour les Alpes leaflet designed by the Educ’Alpes mountain education network.