Longing for the mountains?

• Main Author: Mathieu Petite
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institut de Géographie Alpine 2015-02-01
• Series: Revue de Géographie Alpine
• Subjects: geographic categories; narrative; residential trajectories; Switzerland
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rga/2625

Residential migration in the mountainous regions of Switzerland has changed over the past twenty years. Such changes of residence now concern in part individuals and families drawn by a living environment that is deemed superior to that of cities. This article focuses on the residential trajectories of these inhabitants which led them to settle in mountainous regions. These inhabitants view the path that brought them to their current address through the prism of geographic categories like city, countryside, and mountains. The article analyses the mobilisation and characterisation of the latter category, mountains, in the biographic narratives of inhabitants of three small so-called mountain municipalities in Switzerland. The approach both complements and deepens the question of residential choices by also bringing in the inhabitant’s perspective in all its complexity.