Rike Stotten

University of Innsbruck | UIBK · Department of Sociology

Mountain communities in Alpine areas are prone to natural hazard events and sensitive to climate change. In these areas, where communities are complex human-environmental entanglements, strong community resilience is essential. Community resilience is shaped by a set of interacting domains that provide insights into a commu-nity's resilience level...

Ingram, J., Bellotti, W., Brklacich, M. et al. Further concepts and approaches for enhancing food system resilience. Nat Food (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00762-5 https://rdcu.be/ddsk1

The disembedding nature of globalization is being tackled by integrated and territorial approaches that focus on local contexts and include multiple actors and sectors. One example are biodistricts that rely on values of organic agriculture to strengthen territorial agro-food systems. The remote rural mountain valley of Valposchiavo, Switzerland, f...

Globally, mountain areas are facing numerous social, economic, and ecological challenges. The interplay of natural and social factors makes them complex social-ecological systems. To investigate a mountain setting in the Austrian Alps, we developed the resilient livelihood framework (RLF), relying on the sustainable livelihood framework and integra...

Tourism, especially in the European Alps, contributes to rural livelihood and depends on farming to preserve the landscape. The symbiosis is also expected to strengthen community resilience, conceptualized as a combination of economic, social, cultural, political and natural domains. The interplay of these domains may result in path dependencies dr...

Purpose By examining a case study in Tyrol, Austria, the paper aims to demonstrate the role of farm diversification and the influence of the peasants’ habitus on social-ecological resilience. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a field study conducted in two remote villages of the Ötztal valley, Austrian Alps, this study provides insights into...

The European Alps are known as the ‘water towers of Europe’. However, climatic and socioeconomic changes influence both water supply and demand, increasing the need to manage this limited and valuable resource properly to avoid user conflicts and water scarcity. Two major challenges emerge when assessing water scarcity in the Alps: Firstly, mountai...

Current globalized agricultural and food systems operate with an unsustainable capitalist model of production and consumption. The middle and upper classes of the global North and, increasingly, of emerging economies live at the expense of the global South. This has been referred to as the “imperial mode of living”. An alternative model of producti...

Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet die Rolle von wertebasierten Produktions- und Konsumweisen im dritten Nahrungsmittelregime. Anhand der drei analytischen Dimensionen Institutionen, Materialität und Werte werden Beispiele Initiativen Solidarischer Landwirt-schaft in Österreich mittels qualitativer Sozialforschung explorativ untersucht. Ergebnisse zeigen au...

Die Landwirtschaft prägt über die bewirtschafteten Flächen die physischen Grundlagen der Landschaft Die Landschaftswahrnehmung der bäuerlichen Gemeinschaft ist geprägt vom Habitus, welcher sich im täglichen Handeln ausdrückt. Darüber hinaus sind bäuerliche Kulturlandschaften Konstrukte die eng verknüpft sind mit symbolischen Werten der bäuerlichen...

Die physischen Grundlagen der Alpenlandschaft zeichnen diverse Nutzungsinteressen aus. Einerseits hat der Tourismus vielen Alpentälern Wohlstand gebracht, andererseits verdrängt er teilweise die traditionelle landwirtschaftliche Nutzung. Mit der Etablierung von erneuerbaren Energien bekommen einzelne Gebiete neue Bedeutungen zugeschrieben. Diese ve...

The general decline of mountain farming all over Europe suggests encouraging farmers to adapt their farm management and to diversify their activities into tourism. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the impact of different types of farmer-based provision of accommodation on the preservation of the farm and the identification of farmers with...

This paper presents the documentation of the application of a reflexive photography approach and aims to elaborate its evaluation process. Farmers in Central Switzerland were first asked to take photos, after which interviews and group discussions were conducted with the farmers to explore their landscape perception. The reflexive photography metho...

Landschaft ist sozial konstruiert, sie entsteht in der Wahrnehmung durch die Reflexion mit ihrer Umwelt. Auch Heimat ist ein soziales Konstrukt, welches sich meist auf ein lokalisierbares Zugehörigkeitsgefühl bezieht. Für die bäuerliche Gemeinschaft stehen beide Begriffe im engen Zusammenhang. In ihrem Verständnis der Pflege der Kulturlandschaft, w...

In this paper, the hydrological impacts of future socio-economic and climatic development are assessed for a regional-scale Alpine catchment (Brixental, Tyrol, Austria). Therefore, coupled storylines of future land use and climate scenarios were developed in a transdisciplinary stakeholder process by means of questionnaire analyses and interviews w...

While science widely acknowledges the necessity of climate change adaptation (CCA), concrete strategies for CCA by major land-use actor groups at a local level are largely missing. Immediate economic challenges often prevent the establishment of long-term collective strategies. However, collective decisions on a communal level regarding land use ar...

The aim of this paper is to present new farming arrangements in the Austrian Alps, which lead to resilient farming at a regional scale. Agriculture in the Austrian Alps is characterized by a turn from monofunctionality, focusing solely on food production, towards multifunctionality. Here, mountain farms contribute to the management of alpine landsc...

For the elaboration of adaption strategies to long-term developments, socio-economic changes need to be included. Participatory scenario methods are a creative and flexible approach to consider uncertainties and serve as a transdisciplinary tool for mutual learning. Therefore, socio-economic scenarios provide comprehensive descriptions of future tr...

Der vorliegende Beitrag fasst die Ergebnisse eines transdisziplinären Forschungsprojekts zusammen, welches die komplexen Wechselwirkungen von Klima, Gesellschaft und Landnutzung integrativ unter-sucht und quantifiziert. Das Untersuchungsgebiet ist das 322 km² große Brixental in Tirol (Österreich). Im Rahmen des Projekts wurden hydrologische Simulat...

Building on critical community resilience studies, this study analyses the resilience of the village of Vent, a remote mountain community in the Austrian Ötztal valley challenged by slow-onset disturbances such as climate change, outmigration of young people and the repercussions of the post-2008 recession. A conceptual framework which focuses on h...

Land use and land cover patterns are shaped by the interplay of human and ecological processes. Thus, heterogeneous cultural landscapes have developed, delivering multiple ecosystem services. To guarantee human well-being, the development of land use types has to be evaluated. Scenario development and land use and land cover change models are well-...

Eine Auftragsforschung für das Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft. Expertenbefragung zum Wandel des Tourismus

Im Rahmen des interdisziplinären Forschungsprojekts STELLA (STorylines of socio-Economic and climatic drivers for Land use and their hydrologicaL impacts in Alpine catchments) wird ein interdisziplinärer Ansatz verfolgt, um die komplexen Wechselwirkungen von Klima, Gesellschaft und Landnutzungsänderung integrativ zu untersuchen und zu quantifiziere...

Recently established organic regions aim to be model regions of sustainability. In the frame of this article we understand organic regions as territories that aim at the sustainable management of local resources, based on the principles of organic farming and agroecology. The contribution focuses especially on the role and configurations of values-...

In terms of land use, agriculture is still important in shaping the appearance of the cultural landscape. For the tourism industry as well as for the local population, aspects of landscape are becoming ever more significant. The perception of landscape among farmers plays a decisive role in the implementation of the multifunctional task of agricult...

Landscape is perceived in a different way by different people, depending on their personal knowledge and experience. The perception of an aesthetically appealing landscape among farmers is highly connected to the way of farming. But this perception does not agree with the appreciation of the population or tourists.

An approach of visual sociology has been applied in this study to investigate perspectives of landscape by farmers in Central Switzerland. Reflexive photography aims to visualize spatial experience for scientific research. Pictures taken with single-use cameras by the participants are therefore used during personal interviews. This paper presents t...

Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach, wie Kulturlandschaft von Bauern wahrgenommen bzw. konstituiert wird und welche Rolle dabei Landschaftssozialisation und Habitus spielen. Unterstützt durch die Methode der reflexiven Fotografie, einer innovativen Herangehensweise der visuellen Soziologie, wurden in drei Gemeinden der Zentralschweiz 28 Bauern in Einzel...

Europe’s population is ageing and decreasing. Demographic change is making not only regional and territorial adaptation necessary, but also new region-specific spatial planning and regional development. This publication focusses on demographic change and its implications for the economy and social systems in the Alpine areas, which differ widely fr...

Europe’s population is ageing and decreasing. Demographic change is making not only regional and territorial adaptation necessary, but also new region-specific spatial planning and regional development. This publication focusses on demographic change and its implications for the economy and social systems in the Alpine areas, which differ widely fr...

One of the five identified territorial types of strategic importance to the Alpine Space was the type “tourism areas”. Especially in the core alpine area but also the surrounding rural areas tourism often is the key economy. Demographic change has a double impact to the tourism economy: outside the Alpine Space it leads to a change of the consumer...

Aging poses important challenges for regional housing, mobility and social infrastructure as well as nursing care. In this chapter, the planning and implementation process of Pilot Actions in three model regions is described. In South Tyrol, the potential demand for a shuttle service and a home delivery service for the elderly was surveyed. In a sa...

Within the research field of landscape perception new approaches have been developed and applied on different scales in Switzerland. Agriculture still has a huge impact on the appearance of cultural landscape. The project Kulturlandschaft gemeinsam verstehen investigates the perception among farmers and is focusing on regional differences. Therefor...

The needs of the population – elderly people, young people, tourists, immigrants and local people: DEMOCHANGE addresses the general needs of the changing population in Alpine areas; it also recognizes the reaction to changes within the population of certain areas with specific requirements. By involving stakeholders from local authorities, politici...