News

Call for papers, mountain research and development

20.08.2018

Mountain Research and Development (MRD) are pleased to announce the call for papers on the role of culture in transformation towards sustainable development in mountains. Mountain communities are undergoing rapid sociocultural change, caused by drivers such as outmigration, urbanization, and increasing insertion into the market economy. Mountain cultural heritage is under threat. But communities are responding in creative ways. How can we ensure that culture is a source of creativity and empowerment, that it constitutes the roots upon which a global ethics can grow, and that it helps bridge the divides between the individual and the communitarian? MRD is looking for papers that address these questions and others for the publication that will be released in November 2019.

MRD is looking for contributions for the following three peer-reviewed sections:

Mountain Development (transformation knowledge):

Papers should present systematically validated experiences and research insights into development solutions that consider mountain communities’ cultures and social practices.

Topics may include:

- How can the local knowledge of mountain communities contribute to sustainable development and/or natural resource management?

- How can mountain cultures become a resource for adaptation and resilience building?

- What social innovations work for sustainable development in mountains and how can technical innovations (including digitalization) help maintain social cohesiveness?

- How can cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity become a factor of sustainable mountain development, and how can one deal creatively with opposing forces such as individualism and communitarianism?

Mountain Research (systems knowledge):

Papers should take an integrative approach to analyze the way mountain cultures are affected, and respond to, drivers of sociocultural change such as migration, urbanization, and market integration, amongst others.

Topics may include:

- Cultural ecosystem services in mountains

- Dynamics of mountain cultural landscapes

- Reinvention of mountain identities in the context of global change and/or international or national conflicts

- Threats to and resistance of cultural heritage in mountains

Mountain Agenda (target knowledge):

Papers should provide well-referenced overviews of mountain cultures in a context of global change, and of how cultural initiatives in mountains relate to sustainable development. These overviews can be based on a systematic stakeholder process or a review of the literature. They should conclude with agendas for future research or policy aiming at increasing sustainability in mountains.

Topics may include:

- Mountain communities’ visions of wellbeing and of development

- Designing agendas for cultural sustainability with mountain stakeholders

- The contribution of mountain cultural heritage to the SDGs

Submission details

• Please e-mail your notice of intent indicating your main research question, your conceptual framework, and your methodology (max. 500 words) to the Editorial Office by 30 September 2018: [email protected]

• Submit your full paper by 1 February 2019

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