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Livek: A Mountainous Border Area's Transformation from a Ski Paradise to a Resilient Community

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This chapter focuses on the resilience, capacity, and role of the social-cultural context in climate change adaptation in a small and marginal local community that prides itself on an affluent past based on ski tourism and agriculture. The empirical part is built on a case study of Livek in the hilly northwestern part of Slovenia on the border with Italy, and it includes data from available literature and a series of interviews with two local opinion leaders. The results show that, in the absence of local, specific, and targeted national or regional measures, the path of transition has relied on the community's internal strength and motivation, mostly stemming from flexibility, stubbornness, identity, and place attachment. A crucial role was played by several NGOs and the Livek Agrarian Community, promoting various activities to improve the quality of life in both tangible and non-tangible aspects. In a favourable regional and national context, the community of Livek succeeded in turning its negative development trends around and adapting to current climate conditions.
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