Avalanche risks management as intangible cultural heritage

This paper tackles Avalanche Risks Management (ARM), nominated by Switzerland and Austria and inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018. On the one hand, this nomination conventionally highlights how traditional empirical knowledge of nature and the environment and the skills developed over the generations to deal with avalanches have shaped the identity of Alpine populations. On the other, however, it also emphasizes how these traditional knowledge articulates with “methods developed through scientific knowledge” and how this combination is “essential for addressing future challenges (e.g.: climate change)”. In other words, representations of ICH vehiculated by this project clearly shift from folklore to practices that have potential for dealing with very concrete everyday concerns and that integrate prospective anxieties to be addressed through research and innovation. We will show how this project has performative power in shifting representation of heritage toward sustainable development and we will interrogate the actual linkages between traditional knowledge of lay people and technological development as a tool facing the problems of today and tomorrow, particularly in the field of climate change.