For the love of risk ? When Local Inhabitants’ and Outsiders’ Imaginaries Match: The Case of the Verbier Resort in the Swiss Alps
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56247/qua.419Paraules clau:
Verbier, Swiss Alps, locality, risk-taking, transnationalism, vernacular cosmopolitanismResum
This article focuses on a mountain region in the Swiss Alps that has built an international name for itself since the 1960s upon a specific ski resort, Verbier. From the very beginning, the locals involved in the development of the place were risk-takers, revealing an entrepreneurial spirit that lasts up until now. Over time, the mountain resort has attracted outsiders who share a taste for risk-taking, not only in the field of sport but also in the worlds of finance, art or business. Some emblematic Verbier projects chosen for this article (Xtreme, E-Bike Festival, Art Summit, Mountain Hub) perfectly embody the concordance of interests between locals and non-locals when it comes to exploiting the mountain capital of the place. While highlighting the wider socio-economic and political context in which it is embedded, the paper emphasizes how the whole process of promoting Verbier internationally as a global playground for risk taking, through various win-win corporate strategies negotiated between locals and outsiders, might provide a kind of “vernacular cosmopolitanism”, or “rooted cosmopolitanism”. Beyond the specificity of the case study, it explores how global and local forces interact and intertwin to affect mountain locations and reshape the imaginaries and values of locality.
Descàrregues
Referències
Appiah, K. A. (1998). ‘Cosmopolitan Patriots’. In P. Cheah and B. Robbins (Eds), Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling Beyond the Nation (pp. 91–116). University of Minnesota Press.
Ats, (2019). Dans les coulisses de l'Xtreme de Verbier, Le Matin, 23 mars 2019.
Benson, M. (2013). The British in rural France: Lifestyle migration and the ongoing quest for a better way of life. Manchester University Press.
Berthoud, G. (1982). Plaidoyer pour l'autre: essais d'anthropologie critique. Revue européenne des sciences sociales, 20(60), 5-284.
Boltanski, L. (2006). Les changements actuels du capitalisme et la culture du projet. Cosmopolitiques, 12, 17-42.
Boltanski, L. & Chiapello, E. (1999). Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Gallimard.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge.
Broch, T. (2019). Définition de la stratégie des réseaux sociaux pour la destination Verbier [Bachelor dissertation, Haute Ecole de Gestion & Tourisme, HES‐SO Valais/Wallis]. https://sonar.ch/hesso/documents/316867
Burns, P. M. & Novelli, M. (2008). Tourism and Mobilities: Local Global Connections. Cabi. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1079/9781845934040.0000
Boscoboinik, A. & Cretton, V. (2017) “Find your nature” in the Swiss Alps. In search of a better life in the mountains. Český lid, 104, 199–212. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21104/CL.2017.2.02 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21104/CL.2017.2.02
Cretton, V. (2018). In search of a better world in the Swiss Alps: lifestyle migration, quality of life, and gentrification. In H. Horáková, A. Boscoboinik & R. Smith (Eds.), Utopia and Neoliberalism: Ethnographies of rural spaces (pp. 107-125). LIT Verlag.
Cretton, V., Boscoboinik, A., & Friedli, A. (2020). À l’aise, ici et ailleurs. Mobilités multirésidentielles en zone de montagne: le cas de Verbier en Suisse. Anthropologie et sociétés, 44(2), 107-126. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1075681ar
D’Andrea, A. (2006). Neo-Nomadism: A Theory of Post-Identitarian Mobility in the Global Age. Mobilities, 1(1), 95–119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450100500489148
Decorzant, Y., Fellay, J-C., & Rochat, J. (2019). S’unir pour survivre: le consortage d’alpage du Scex-Blanc (1922-1979). In L. Lorenzetti, Y. Decorzant & A. L. Head-König (Eds.), Relire l’altitude: La terre et ses usages Suisse et espaces avoisinants, XIIe-XXIe siècles (pp. 97-119). Editions Alphil, Presses universitaires suisses.
Deslarzes, B. (1998). Verbier, tourisme et mutation, 1930-1960. Editions Faim de siècle.
Duncan, T. (2012). The ‘Mobilities Turn’ and the Geography of Tourism. In J. Wilson (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Geographies (pp.113–119). Routledge.
Eimermann, M. (2016). Two sides of the same coin: Dutch rural tourism entrepreneurs and countryside capital in Sweden. Rural Society, 25(1), 55-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10371656.2016.1152033
Fageot, M. (2020). Xtreme de Verbier : la folle histoire du Bec des Rosses, 25.03.2020.
https://www.redbull.com/fr-fr/xtreme-verbier-bec-des-rosses-histoire
Faist, T. (2013). The Mobility Turn: A New Paradigm for the Social Sciences? Ethnic and Racial Studies, 36(11), 1637-1646. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2013.812229
Friedli, A. (2020). Living in the mountains: Mobilities, forms of residentiality and local identities of new inhabitants of a Swiss ski resort. Via, 18. https://doi.org/10.4000/ viatourism.5792 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/viatourism.5792
Garrod, B., Wornell, R., & Youell, R. (2006). Re-conceptualising rural resources as countryside capital: The case of rural tourism. Journal of Rural Studies, 22, 117–128. doi:10. 1016/j.jrurstud.2005.08.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2005.08.001
Geoffroy, C. (2007). From “Chamouni” to Chamonix: the British in the Alps. In Geoffroy, C., & Sibley, R. (Eds.). Going abroad: Travel, tourism, and migration. Cross-cultural perspectives on mobility (pp. 93-109). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Hall, C. M. (2005). Tourism: Rethinking the Social Science of Mobility. Prentice Hall.
Hannerz, U. (1992). Cultural Complexity: Studies in the Social Organization of Meaning. Columbia University Press.
Hannerz, U. (2002). Where We Are and Who We Want to Be. In U. Hedetoft & M. Hjort (Eds.). The Postnational Self: Belonging and Identity (pp. 217–232). University of Minnesota.
Hannerz, U. (2006). Two faces of cosmopolitanism: Culture and politics. Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, 107(3), 199-213.
Hayes, N. (2001). Insiders and Outsiders: Construction of Identity Among Youth Travellers in Whistler British Columbia [Master of Arts dissertation, McMaster University].
Hummon, D. M. (1992). “Community Attachment: Local Sentiment and Sense of Place.” In I. Altman and S. M. Low (Eds). Place Attachment (pp. 253–277). EPlenum Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8753-4_12
Jackson, P., Crang, P., & Dwyer, C. (2004). Introduction. In P. Jackson, P. Crang, and C. Dwyer (Eds). Transnational Spaces (pp.1–23). Routledge.
Kaufmann, V., Bergmann, M. & Joye, D. (2004). Motility: Mobility as Capital. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 28(4), 745-756. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0309-1317.2004.00549.x
Kaufmann, V., Maksim, H., Borja, S., Courty, G. & Ramadier, T. (2012). La mobilité comme capital? Forum Vies Mobiles. http://fr.forumviesmobiles.org/ controverse/2012/12/11/mobilite-comme-capital-488.
Larsen, J., Axhausen, K. W., & Urry, J. (2006). Geographies of social networks: meetings, travel and communications. Mobilities, 1(2), 261-283. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450100600726654
Larsen, J., & Urry, J. (2008). Networking in Mobile Societies. In J. Bærenholdt & B. Granås (Eds.), Mobility and Place: Enacting Northern European Peripheries (pp. 89–101). Ashgate.
L’Echo magazine, A l’origine de l’Xtrême de Verbier, 20 mars 2021. https://echomagazine.ch/component/k2/item/500-a-l-origine-de-l-xtreme-de-verbier
L’Entretien de la rédaction: Elisabeth Gerritzen, freerideuse, 52 minutes, (6 April 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbxKUyrhmTk
Mari, N. (2019). L’introduction du Verbier E-Bike Festival: un levier pour le positionnement E-bike de la destination de Verbier–Val de Bagnes? [Bachelor dissertation, Haute Ecole de Gestion & Tourisme, HES ‐SO Valais Wallis]. https://sonar.ch/hesso/documents/316976
Moore, S., Williams, P. W., & Gill, A. (2006). Finding a pad in paradise: Amenity migration effects on Whistler, British Columbia. In Moss, L.A. (Ed.) The amenity migrants: Seeking and sustaining mountains and their cultures (pp. 135-147). Cabi. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1079/9780851990842.0135
Moss, L. A. (Ed.). (2006). The amenity migrants: Seeking and sustaining mountains and their cultures. Cabi. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1079/9780851990842.0000
Paillard, A. (2015). Le marché touristique chinois en Valais: dans quelle mesure faut-il adapter l'offre touristique valaisanne afin de l’améliorer pour les visiteurs chinois? [Bachelor dissertation, Haute Ecole de Gestion & Tourisme, HES ‐SO Valais Wallis]. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43673166.pdf
Pavelka, J. P. (2018). The two year tourist and lifestyle migration in Whistler BC., Spring 5-23, Travel and Tourism Research Association, TTRA Canada 2018 Conference. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttracanada_2018_conference
Petite, M. (2005). La réappropriation locale du phénomène touristique: le cas de Verbier (Suisse). Revue de géographie alpine, 93(3), 57-67. doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/rga.2005.2356 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rga.2005.2356
Pertuiset, S. (2015). L’Xtreme de Verbier joue à se faire peur depuis 20 ans, Le Temps, 27 mars. https://www.letemps.ch/sport/lxtreme-verbier-joue-se-faire-peur-20-ans
Raveneau, G. (2006). Prises de risque sportives: représentations et constructions sociales. Ethnologie française, 36(4), 581-590. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/ethn.064.0581
Rickly, J. M. (2014). Lifestyle Mobilities: A Politics of Lifestyle Rock Climbing, Mobilities 11(2), 243-263. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2014.977667. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2014.977667
Rickly, J. M., (2017), “I’m a Red River local”: Rock climbing mobilities and community hospitalities, Tourist Studies, 17(1), 54–74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797616685648
Salazar, N. B. (2011). The Power of Imagination in Transnational Mobilities. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 18, 1-23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2011.672859
Salazar, N. B. (2017). Key Figures of Mobility: An Introduction. Social Anthropology, 25(1), 5-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12393
Savage, M., Bagnall, G. & Longhurst, B. (2005). Globalization and Belonging. Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446216880
Sheller, M. & Urry, J.(eds) (2004). Tourism Mobilities: Places to Play, Places in Play. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203340332
Stock, M. & Lucas, L. (2012). La double révolution urbaine du tourisme. Espaces et sociétés, 2012/3 (151), 15-30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/esp.151.0015
Thorpe, H. (2017). ‘The endless winter’: transnational mobilities of skilled snow sport workers. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43(3), 528-545, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2016.1190638 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2016.1190638
Thorpe, H. (2014). Transnational mobilities in action sport cultures. Palgrave Macmillan, https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390744 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230390744
Thorpe, H. (2012a). ‘Sex, drugs and snowboarding’: (il)legitimate definitions of taste and lifestyle in a physical youth culture. Leisure Studies, 3(1), 33-51, DOI: 10.1080/02614367.2011.596556 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2011.596556
Thorpe, H. (2012b). Transnational Mobilities in Snowboarding Culture: Travel, Tourism and Lifestyle Migration. Mobilities, 7(2), 317-345, DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2012.654999 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2012.654999
Urry, J., (2007). Mobilities. Polity Press.
Werbner, P. (2006). Vernacular cosmopolitanism. Theory, Culture & Society, 23(2-3), 496-498. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/026327640602300291
