Linking mountain identities throughout the world: the experience of Swiss communities

Abstract

This article analyses transnational partnerships set up between Swiss mountain municipalities and other mountain communities throughout the world. It seeks to evaluate the role of this kind of horizontal cooperation in a world which is increasingly dominated by global flux and complex interactions between multilevel stakeholders. A review of these partnerships shows the quantitative importance of partnerships built upon the celebration of attributes and values associated with mountains. Beyond the very great diversity in the types of partnership and their objectives, the partnerships are surprisingly capable of combining cultural, political and economic objectives, and of bringing together local objectives, national imagination, federal policies and intergovernmental priorities.