Unveiling Hidden Changes

What happens when centuries-old seasonal transhumance gives way to industrial dairy farming? Through different ethnographic perspectives and multi-sited fieldwork on high-altitude farmsteads on the one hand and Alpine pastures on the other, we elaborate on how diverse “bodies” transform within shifting farmstead ( Hof ) assemblages, including humans, animals, plants and infrastructures. How can we grasp the gradual separation of these two historically interdependent geographical levels? Our diverging ethnographic perspectives drew our attention to various blind spots related to how intensified dairy operations have contributed to the abandonment of Alpine pastures, now experiencing woody encroachment. What if the Hof 's appearance of centuries-old continuity obscures a fundamental transformation in how land, animals and work are coordinated? In this snapshot we show that what is perceived as “traditional” farming represents a novel, fragmented system in which the past unity between high-altitude farmstead and Alpine pasture has gradually but decisively drifted apart

Abandonment (legal) · Agriculture · Alienation · Ethnography · Interdependence · Snapshot (computer storage) · Work (physics) · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Geographies of human-animal interactions