From Mosaic to Network: Social and Cultural Geography in Switzerland

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provided by RERO DOC Digital Library Published in Social & Cultural Geography 8, issue 4, 635-648, 2007 1 which should be used for any reference to this work

From mosaic to network: social and cultural geography in Switzerland

Ola Söderström Institut de géographie, Université de Neuchâtel, Espace Louis-Agassiz 1, CH-2001 Neuchâtel, Switzerland, [email protected]

Introduction: does Swiss geography exist? system. Universities are mainly funded by the cantons and receive only part (around 25 per It is already a tradition: most country reports ent) of their ﬁnancial support from the State. in this journal start with questions and doubts There is therefore very little national steering concerning the relevance of thinking about the of education and research.1 The appointment production of geographical knowledge in of professors and researchers in geography national terms. I cannot avoid feeding this departments, for instance, is, unlike France, tradition as Switzerland is a particularly made with no connection to national insti- uncertain and fragmented nation. It is often tutions. Unlike Italy, the national association maintained that it certainly is a State but much of geographers is not a strong and important more dubious whether it really is a nation, forum of decision making and unlike the UK because it has no single language, but four or the USA this association does not organize national ones, no single religion and more an important annual conference and come- than twenty different educational systems. In together of the discipline. other words, Switzerland lacks some of the The consequence of these national speciﬁ- crucial elements of the nation-building tool- cities has for long been a situation with rather box. It is moreover territorially very fragmen- autonomous, non-specialized departments ted: it continues to have a huge number of working like small cantonal baronies, gov- communes (2,900) and the Swiss remain erned by a feudal logic and maintaining extremely keen on maintaining local identity connections mostly with foreign colleagues and cantonal autonomy. and departments. There has been a series of Geography as an academic discipline and negative outcomes to such a situation (which the daily work of geographers are embedded are rather obvious and need not be commented within this political culture and territorial upon here), but also some positive ones. 2

Autonomy and self-containment gave the Geography is to be found in eight out of the possibility for a series of figures to become ten universities in the country. Recently it has original voices in continental European been established also as a laboratory at the geography. The French part of Switzerland, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in in particular, was in the 1970s and 1980s Lausanne.3 Though there has been some rightly considered by our French colleagues as recent changes, geography departments are an area where one could escape from the poor located within natural science faculties in the alternative between Vidalian orthodoxy, on German part and in the Humanities (or the the one hand, and spatial analysis, on the faculties of social and economic sciences) in other. Secondly, linguistic fragmentation, the French part of the country, reflecting which can be seen as a handicap, is also an German and French traditions within the important asset and resource for Swiss discipline. geography. Swiss libraries are not ‘mono- Geography holds a reasonably strong traditional’: they contain remarkable collec- institutional position in Switzerland, due to tions of monographs and journals in German, four main factors. The first is that the French, English, Italian and other languages. discipline has always attracted large numbers As a consequence there is a truly cosmopolitan of students. The second, that geographers have intellectual culture and tradition in Switzer- often held important institutional positions land which manifests itself in its social and within universities and on the boards of the cultural geography. Swiss National Fund of Research, the main Recently things have been changing though. research-funding organization in the country. First, the so-called Bologna agreement signed The third reason is a significant media presence by Switzerland in 1999, leading to the creation (national media are relatively open to the social of standardized curricula for the sake of intra- sciences). And the fourth, the perception within and inter-national mobility, and, second, the the population that geography is an empirically federal politics of education asking for oriented and socially useful discipline.4 increased co-ordination between universities, The situation described above—absence of have triggered the replacement of the old co-ordination, non-specialized departments, (feudal) governance model by a managerial etc.—means that only recently have depart- one. The Swiss being disciplined and serious, the ments and geographers in Switzerland begun pace of change has been spectacular in recent to identify with subfields such as social and years. Most geography departments have now cultural geography and to label their research developed clear profiles and are increasingly and teaching activities accordingly. The sub- co-ordinating their teaching and research field is today clearly identified as such in four activities.2 The department of geography in departments: Basel, Bern, Geneva and Neu- Neuchaˆtel launched, for instance, in 2005 the chaˆtel. Zurich is also productive in the field, first Swiss doctoral school in geography with but practises it under the banner of economic the collaboration of four other universities from or gender geography, as is Lausanne, under the the French part of the country—an initiative banner of sustainable urban development. which would have been close to impossible ten The research activities in these departments years ago. So, if ‘Swiss geography’ was for a long can be distributed across five major themes: time a rather elusive entity, something like it is social and cultural theory, society/culture quickly emerging. and environment, gender/labour and space, 3

migrations/interculturality, urban cultures and within Swiss geography: since 2004, a group of societies. young researchers in Geneva is, for instance, working on Raffestin’s legacy in order to make it more easily accessible.5 Social and cultural theory His territoriality theory has certainly been an important means through which human Switzerland has been a rather fertile soil for geography came to consider itself as part of the theoretical musings and it continues to be one. social sciences, which is historically, in I would like to mention here, in what is Switzerland, quite a recent event. There is inevitably a partial vision, four theoretical however something paradoxical—and Raffestin ‘incubators’: two are related to the work of is himself well aware of it—in the present individual geographers, two others to research interest for a theory which tries to subsume all networks. human spatiality under the concepts of Claude Raffestin’s theory of territoriality is territoriality and territory, while the rise of one of the major contributions of Swiss the network society continuously shows that geography to the rethinking of human this is no longer possible (if it ever was). geography in the twentieth century and, In German-speaking Switzerland, the same more specifically, to the development of a move of geography from a discipline often still theoretically informed social and cultural conceived as having its root in the natural geography (Philo and So¨ derstro¨ m 2005). For sciences to a discipline connected to contem- a long time a professor in Geneva, and now porary social and cultural theory was facili- recently retired, his work is an original tated by Benno Werlen’s work on an action attempt to build a general framework for the theory-oriented human geography (Werlen comprehension of human beings’ geographic 1993, 2000, 2004). Building on the phenom- condition (Raffestin 1980, 1984, 1986). This enological tradition, especially in its Schutzian theory builds creatively on references that very version, but also on the work of the German few geographers were using at the time it was geographer Wolfgang Hartke (Hartke 1959), elaborated (in the 1970s and 1980s): from Werlen has developed a critique of ‘spatialism’ French philosophy and social theory to human (the idea that spatial entities are as such the ecology, Russian semiotics or German political objects of geographic enquiry). The focus, he philosophy. It exerted however for years a maintains, should instead be on processes of weaker influence than it deserved (and was regionalization and geography-making probably more influential in Italy than in throughwhichhumanactionconstructs Switzerland or France), partly because more or less stabilized forms of places, Raffestin’s work is scattered in a great number territories or landscapes. Though Werlen is of often short papers, which are sometimes now working in Jena, Germany, his coherent difficult to access. Though general in its scope, theoretical work continues to exert a signifi- his theory, insisting on logics of appropriation, cant influence on Swiss-German geographers. spatial demarcation and symbolic mediation Among them, Joris van Wezemael, who has (in one word: territoriality), gave predominant been working recently on the conceptualization weight to the social and cultural dimensions of of an action-oriented economic geography human geography. This body of work has (Wezemael 2005) with case studies regarding recently been the subject of a renewed interest the Swiss housing market (Wezemael 2004). 4

The two other ‘theoretical incubators’ are mountain identities and visualizations of space different in nature. They have not sought to (Debarbieux 2004; Debarbieux and Vanier build a Grand Theory, they have been 2002); Jacques Le´vy on the variable dimen- collective endeavours and they have the form sions and ontologies of space and place of informal networks of collaboration. The (Allemand, Ascher and Le´vy 2004; Le´vy ﬁrst is a group of researchers interested since 1998); Mathis Stock on the conceptualization the early 1980s in questions of geographic of mobility and dwelling (Stock forthcoming; representations and practices (and in the nexus Stock and Duhamel 2005); Christian Schmid representation/practice). Meeting every on a study of urban space around Lefebvrian second year, this international network, categories (Schmid 2005); Dagmar Reichert including mainly Swiss, French and Italian on space as a category of thought (Reichert geographers, was active during the 1980s and 1996) or my own work on visuality, urbanism 1990s. It was important for the discussion and and spatial artefacts (So¨ derstro¨ m 2000, 2005). importation in Switzerland of debates around the semiotics of space, and the relevance for geography of ethnomethodology and social Society/culture/environment studies of science. The group included French- speaking geographers active in Switzerland If Switzerland is, surprisingly perhaps, a land such as Antoine Bailly, Jean-Bernard Racine, of theory, it is also (less surprisingly) very Bernard Debarbieux, Charles Hussy, Jean-Luc sensitive to issues regarding natural environ- Piveteau and Ola So¨ derstro¨ m (Mondada, ments. Swiss national identity has been Panese and So¨ derstro¨ m 1991). shaped, in the nineteenth and early twentieth The second forum of theoretical debate in centuries through a discourse on the natural social and cultural geography has been an environment of the country and the values informal and variable group of geographers in associated with alpine rural life. Today still, large part animated by the geographer of the beauty of the landscape is a constant Zurich (of Austrian origin) Dagmar Reichert.6 source of pride as well as a crucial touristic In this network, issues around the epistem- asset. There is, for the above-mentioned ology of geography, the critique of carto- reasons,7 in Swiss social and cultural geography graphic reason, art, performativity and an abundant recent body of work concerning emotionality have been explored over the environmental issues in the South or in years (Farinelli, Olsson and Reichart 1994). Switzerland, the social consequences of Thanks to these four ‘places of elaboration’, climate change, urban sustainability, moun- Switzerland has been a region where theory tain regions and risk management. has not only been imported in what would be a The Development Study Group at the periphery of geographic thought, but also one University of Zurich is the largest where a series of interesting discussions and group dealing with social and cultural aspects developments have been (and are) taking of environmental change. Its goal is ‘to place. investigate the core problems of unsustainable The theoretical discussions, often connected development in developing and transition to these four sources, continue in the countries and to make a contribution towards publications of, among others, Bernard the mitigation of the syndromes of global Debarbieux, around the transformation of change, especially in those regions, which are 5

cut off from the mainstream of economic Tourism is of course a vulnerable sector of development’ (Mu¨ ller-Bo¨ ker et al. 2003: 192). activity in times of climate change, as Elsasser The work of these geographers focuses on and Bu¨ rki have shown in a series of recent questions such as livelihood strategies in South papers (Bu¨ rki, Elsasser, Abegg and Koenig and Southeast Asia (Mu¨ ller-Bo¨ ker and Koll- 2005; Elsasser and Bu¨ rki 2002). mair 2000); the impact of globalization The University of Geneva hosts another processes on marine resource uses in Bali group, ‘Montagnes: connaissances et poli- (Backhaus 1998), local resource–use conflicts tiques’,8 which is active in mountain research regarding forests in Nepal (Kollmair and from a social science perspective. The work of Mu¨ ller-Bo¨ ker 2002), Pakistan (Geiser 2005; Bernard Debarbieux, in particular, deals with Geiser and Steimann 2004) or Kerala (Geiser the discursive and iconographic construction 2001); labour migration patterns (Thieme et al. of the mountain as a category of thought and 2005; Thieme and Wyss 2005); nature action. Rather than simply being an element of conservation in Asia (Kollmair, Mu¨ ller-Bo¨ ker the natural world, the mountain is also, and Soliva 2003) or Switzerland (Mu¨ ller- Debarbieux argues, ‘a mediation of the Bo¨ ker and Kollmair 2004); and participatory continuous institution of geographic reality’ environmental planning processes (Ejderyan (2004: 404). Together with Martin Price, he 2004; Geiser 2003). The group uses theory- has recently analysed how mountains tend based fieldworks inspired by structuration today to become a ‘global common good’, as theory, new institutionalism or actor-network different international and national agencies, theory. groups of academics and networks of local The work of this group of geographers is a communities shape mountain regions as a contribution to our understanding of ‘natur- common object of analysis and action. This ecultures’ in the globalized South. Mu¨ ller- phenomenon is studied as a ‘rhetorical process Bo¨ ker and Kollmair have, for instance, which fits the vision and the needs of some analysed how nature conservation strategies stakeholders who rely on it to support their conceived by international non-governmental own legitimacy’ (Debarbieux and Price forth- organizations coexist with the livelihood coming). A particularly interesting aspect of strategies of local communities in Eastern this research is the analysis of the formation of Nepal. Monitoring the ‘reception’ of a World- trans-national politics of nature through the Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) project through study of a series of symbolic and material fieldwork, they emphasize the discrepancies means: discourses on a common mountain between (and/or controversies arising from) identity, but also footpaths traversing the alps, the different perspectives (those of the project or built forms (bridges, architecture) symbo- promoters, tourists and the local population) lizing relations between geographically distant on the environmental problems of the area, and mountain communities. the difficulties of a participatory process in a Such environmental concerns within social context of strong gender and social differences. and cultural geography are not confined to Other members of the department are active mountain areas, but are also applied to on questions regarding climate change and urban areas. The reverse would be worrying, mountain regions, especially the threat of considering that Switzerland is heavily urba- global warming on a crucial resource for Swiss nized (73.3 per cent of the total population economy: snow (Elsasser and Messerli 2001). lives in urban areas according to the 2000 6

census). The question of urban sustainability produced by different forms of risk manage- is, in particular, the focal point of recent ment strategies. research at the Department of Geography in Lausanne. Edited by Antonio Da Cunha, the recently created journal Urbia9 addresses Gender/labour/space themes such as urban sprawl and its alterna- tives, the reuse of derelict spaces in urban When accounting for the development of areas, urban governance and the evaluation of gender studies within Swiss geography, Elisa- contemporary urban policies in Switzerland. beth Buehler recently pointed to the import- The research of Patrick Re´rat at the University ance of Swiss women’s movements in the of Neuchaˆtel touches on similar issues (Re´rat 1980s and 1990s. She mentions two political 2005, 2006). Studying urban sprawl versus events: ‘“the nation-wide women’s strike day” compact city models in Switzerland, he in 1991 with half a million women on the questions in an ongoing research project the streets demanding equal opportunities and (in)compatibility between social and environ- the social upheaval in March 1993, when the mental sustainability, with the assumption designated woman for the Swiss national that there is a potential tension between government was not elected by the national policies favouring the densification of core parliament’ (Buehler forthcoming). These cities and environmental sustainability, on the events certainly helped to put questions of one hand, and poorly socially sustainable gender on the agenda of Swiss geographers, processes of gentrification, related to such but it did not happen everywhere in the same policies, on the other. way. Gender studies are particularly well Finally, research on risks have recently represented at the universities of Bern and been re-problematized within Swiss human Zurich and are, generally speaking, much geography. The work of Vale´rie November more present in the German part of the (2002, 2004) and her team ESpRI at the Swiss country. Three geography departments in that Institute of Technology in Lausanne, in region ‘are offering, or have offered institu- particular, drawing on actor-network theory, tionalized opportunities to study and graduate considers risk assessment and management as in feminist geography, while in Germany and constituting an assemblage of social and Austria this has not been the case’ (Buehler technological factors which defines a series of forthcoming). A significative number of different risk territories and which transforms journal papers, MAs and PhDs have been the spaces under surveillance. One example is published since 1978 on gender issues, due the transformation of public spaces through especially to the work of two pioneers of CCTV equipment (November, Klauser and feminist geography in Switzerland: Verena Ruegg 2002). Her study shows, in other Meier Kruker and Elisabeth Ba¨schlin (Ba¨schlin words, not only how natural hazards but also 2002a; Meier 1994). Their work helped how risk management transform different to institutionalize gender studies in Switzer- types of environments. Studying ‘natural’ land, where Doris Wastl-Walter now holds the (floods), ‘technological’ (electricity black only chair including gender studies in its outs) and ‘social’ (sport events) risks, the definition. work of ESpRI also analyses the often The gender studies group at the University non-congruent spatial patterns defined and of Bern, led by Doris Wastl-Walter, has been 7

very active in recent years. Its work, building Migrations/interculturality on postcolonial studies and queer theory, focuses on discursive and subjective construc- The politics of migration and multiculturalism tions of gender identities. Using biographical is a central issue in Swiss public space for two material, texts and visual methodologies they reasons at least. First, because Switzerland is investigate themes such as women in the much more than other European countries a economy of mountain regions (Ba¨ schlin land of immigration. One-third of the popu- 2002b), women in resistance and peace lation is (partly at least) of foreign origin, one- movements, and the integration/exclusion of quarter is born outside of the country (Piguet migrant women in Swiss society (Rian˜ o 2003; 2004). Secondly, Switzerland is in itself Wastl-Walter and Staeheli 2004). culturally heterogeneous. As a consequence, In Zurich, through the work of Verena questions of multiculturalism predate, and add Meier Kruker, who also worked for years in a layer of complexity to, the question of Munich, and Elisabeth Buehler, gender studies immigrant integration and/or exclusion. Leim- have been focusing on issues of labour and gruber insists for that reason on the existence inequalities. In a paper where they investigate of two forms of multiculturalism: a ‘native’ different gendered labour arrangements, and an ‘imported’ one (Leimgruber 2002). The Buehler and Meier Kruker look, for instance, first is constitutionally legitimated and pub- at the role of local and regional working licly recognized, the second, unlike Canada for cultures in the explanation of regional instance, is not inscribed in the constitution differences (Buehler and Meier Kruker 2002). and subject to much political controversy. They show that mothers with small children A wide range of scholars are therefore are more likely to work in the French-speaking working on different aspects of the question, part than in the German-speaking part of the such as the study of migratory flows; social, country and that gender equality issues are cultural and political integration; identity more often raised in public discourses in the politics; issues around citizenship and cosmo- French- and Italian-speaking parts than in the politanism; State regulations and the econ- German one (see also Buehler 1998). Using omic activities of immigrants. An important both statistical data and ethnographic material part of the research in the field is accomplished from fieldwork in the Calanca valley (in the by the Swiss Forum for Migration and canton of Graubu¨ nden), they argue that ‘a Population Studies at the University of complex set of economic opportunity struc- Neuchaˆtel, where a series of geographers are, tures, economic cycles, welfare state regu- or have been, active.10 Etienne Piguet in lations and cultural values, ideals and norms particular, now at the Institute of Geography are shaping gendered labour arrangements in a in Neuchaˆtel, has published extensively on the specific place’ (Buehler and Meier Kruker situation of refugees in Switzerland, on 2002: 312). In other words, and this is also an migratory politics of the government or on expression of its federalism, Switzerland is the discriminatory practices of the employers characterized by at least two distinct general on the Swiss labour market. In his analysis of gender cultures, as different national votes the migratory politics in Switzerland during regarding the role and rights of women (to the second half of the twentieth century, have maternity leave for instance) have shown he maintains that (material) national bound- in recent years. aries have acquired an increasing importance 8

in recent years. Through the integration of The specific migration trajectories, projects values pertaining to the Human Rights and patterns of certain trans-national social discourse, nation states have in their majority groups is a recent and developing field of renounced to massively expulse immigrants research. African football players or cabaret present on their soil and become on the dancers are some of the groups accomplishing contrary more restrictive in terms of controls circulatory migrations between different cities at their borders (Piguet 2004: 138). Switzer- in Switzerland (according to job contracts land is, he shows, but one example of the fact with sports clubs or cabarets) as well as that the globalization of population flows and circulating to and fro between their country of political values is, when you consider inter- origin and where they earn their salary (Poli national migrations, seriously counterba- 2006). Apart from the analysis of the spatial lanced by national, territorial strategies and patterns corresponding to these contemporary logics, related in particular to the maintenance forms of ‘migrations’, those studies, focusing of specific forms of the welfare state. on the organization of long-distance social Being a federal state, Switzerland is also networks, allow us to have concrete examples geographically diverse in terms of migration and figures regarding remittance or knowledge policies as it hosts different politics of transfers and thus of those trans-national integration and forms of access to flows that tend often to be described in citizenship (voting rights in particular), abstract terms. according to cantonal legislations (Wanner and Piguet 2002). Numerous other studies within Swiss geogra- Urban cultures and societies phy touch on specific aspects of immigration. As already mentioned, the identity strategies of The urban translation of Swiss federalism is a women migrants is a theme in Swiss gender system of medium-sized and small cities, studies. The economic strategies of migrants in where only one agglomeration exceeds one Southern Asia is part of the analysis conducted million inhabitants (Zurich) and where none at the University of Zurich on livelihood of the other urban areas count more than half strategies in those areas (Thieme et al. 2005; a million inhabitants. The scale of urban Thieme and Mu¨ller-Bo¨ker 2004). Thieme and ‘problems’ is related to such sizes. Only Wyss have, for instance, recently shown how, exceptionally are Swiss geographers witnessing because of remittance transfer, each migration sweeping and spectacular processes of urban decision in Western Nepal stimulates sub- change in the immediate vicinity of their office. sequent migration (Thieme and Wyss 2005). The apparent tranquillity of urbanism can, In Switzerland itself, several studies have however, be deceiving for an external observer. investigated the places created by or related to Zurich, Geneva and Lugano concentrate a immigrant communities (clubs, associations, number of financial headquarters which is not restaurants, shops) as sites of intercultural at all proportional to their size. The strength of exchange (Racine 2002a; Racine and Marengo multinational corporations and the power of 1998) or as expressions of economic activities attraction of its universities and institutes of dependent on social networks which connect technology, among other things, imply that Swiss cities to the countries of origin of these cities are related in many different ways migrant communities (Piguet 1999). to a vast array of places by the social networks 9

and the mobility of its elite. Due to the wealth elderly people (Schneider-Sliwa 2004), on the of the country, but also to the curiosity of its basis of large sample surveys is another inhabitants, the art scene and the cultural offer important focus in this department, which is of cities in Switzerland also exceed by far what strongly oriented towards problem-solving could be expected when considering their and thus applied urban social research. sheer size. Through these different threads, Geographers at the Department of Geogra- Swiss urban communities are densely inter- phy in Zurich have developed innovative tools connected to the rest of the world, and in that for what they call ‘sociotopological modelling’ sense thoroughly globalized. (hence ‘sotomo’ for the name of this research These elements are worth mentioning at group), in other words the measurement and least for two reasons. First, because they are in graphic representation of social distances and stark contrast with the political isolation of spaces as well as of political topologies based the country11 emblematized by the maps of the on voting behaviour.12 The results, concerning European Union with the Swiss blank hole in phenomena such as residential segregation in the middle. Second, because they show that Zurich (Heye and Leuthold 2006) or voting Swiss cities are very interesting research behaviour in Switzerland since 1945 (Her- objects. This potential of Swiss cities as mann and Leuthold 2003), are visualized interesting instances of ‘globalized localities’ using non-Euclidean representations of these remained for long somewhat unexploited, social and cultural spaces. The aim of these however (perhaps because Swiss geographers models is to understand, describe and quantify were also deceived by the apparent banality of ‘large and small-scale regionalization and their urban spaces). Recently though, interesting segregation processes and their consequences’ work has been published in this perspective. (Mu¨ ller-Bo¨ ker et al. 2003: 194) in Swiss cities. Some of it has already been mentioned in this In their study of residential segregation in report regarding sustainability or social risks, Zurich, Heye and Leuthold (2006) thus show but there is an intense research activity on that there is no ‘ethnic effect’ in that city, in the other themes as well. sense that segregation patterns follow the There is still a strong and often creative socio-economic characters of the population tradition of spatial and quantitative analysis of and that there is therefore no specific pattern the social geography of cities in Switzerland. related to variables such as the country of At the University of Basel, the focus is on the origin of the residents. A finding which mirrors study of social change in terms of demo- studies done at the national level (Huissoud, graphic evolutions, employment structure, Stofer, Cunha and Schuler 2003). quality of life and residential segregation in Zurich is also where the International the city of Basel (Kampschulte and Schneider- Network for Urban Research and Action Sliwa 2003; Sandtner 2001). The same (INURA), a network of critical urban questions are also analysed in international researchers counting many geographers, metropolises, with research conducted on the originated in 1991. Connecting academics, restructuring of cities like Berlin, Hong Kong planners, activists, mainly in Europe, but with or Sarajevo (Schneider-Sliwa 2002). The members also in Asia, North America and elaboration of planning design guidelines for Latin America, the network engages in specific social groups with specific needs, such analyses of contemporary urban change, on as the disabled (Schneider-Sliwa 2003) and forms of resistance and on the search for 10

alternative development and planning strat- Zug and a few others) since 2000, after decades egies (INURA 1999; INURA and Paloscia of urban sprawl during which the centres 2004). Richard Wolff and Christian Schmid, generally lost their attractiveness as a space of two founding members of INURA, have, over residence for the most advantaged categories of the past fifteen years, contributed to the the population (Re´rat, So¨derstro¨m, Besson and theoretical debate on urban transformations Piguet 2008). in Switzerland. They have used Zurich as their Finally, other classical ‘urban problems’, main research laboratory, studying for such as poverty, segregation and violence, have instance the emergence of Zurich as a world been well documented over the past few years financial centre (Hitz, Keil and Lehrer 1995), or in Swiss cities. Until the late 1980s, Switzerland the models that have governed its urban had known a continuous process of growth development in the past decades (Schmid 2004). since World War II. The rise of unemployment Bridging the gap between geographic and rates in the 1990s and of financial precarious- architectural approaches of the urban phenom- ness for important sectors of the population enon, Schmid is also one of the authors of a was experienced therefore as a dramatic recent and widely discussed ‘portrait of urban change. Cunha showed in the late 1990s that Switzerland’ (Diener et al. 2006). The book 10 per cent of the Swiss population lived under aims at convincing decision-makers that Swit- the poverty threshold and that these figures zerland is thoroughly urbanized, in the sense were higher in urban centres (Cunha 1999).14 that ways of life are urban throughout the Developing a combination of different country’s territory, which is a strong claim in a approaches to the phenomenon, he studied, country with a long-standing anti-urban politi- using in-depth interviews, the processes leading cal and cultural tradition (Salomon 2005). It is to deprivation, showing that deskilling and the at once an interpretation of Swiss urban disintegration of social bonds were common development, organized according to three denominators of the trajectories narrated by his categories (networks, borders, differences) interviewees (Cunha, Leresche and Vez 1998). defined in Lefebvrian terms, a plea for the Violence in urban centres is related by elaboration of consistent urban policies (break- different authors to the same process of social ing with this anti-urban tradition) and a disintegration (Noseda 2006; Racine 2002b). planning proposal at the national level. Different from the much mediated confronta- Gentrification is a classical theme in urban tions of young inhabitants of the French social and cultural geography. It has been a ‘banlieues’ and the police in autumn 2005, it background theme, but not a central issue, both takes in Switzerland the form of incivilities in the work of ‘sotomo’ and INURA and it has, and an increasing number of crimes in specific generally speaking, not received real attention in places such as stations, night clubs, etc. Switzerland, like in most non-anglophone European countries, until quite recently. The first assessment of the process in Switzer- Conclusion land, at the level of the urban network as a whole, is one of the goals of ongoing research at The fact that I have tended to organize this, the Institute of Geography in Neuchaˆtel.13 Its fatally incomplete, report in terms of university first results show that we witness the first signs of departments in different cities shows that such a process in a series of cities (Zurich, Thun, research is increasingly produced within 11

thematically defined groups of researchers in geographers who kindly alleviated the burden these departments, while it was a much more by sending me recent references. individual matter in Switzerland only ten years ago. In that sense the situation has become less Notes idiosyncratic and closer to what most geographers experience in their respective countries. 1 This is about to change though with a federal law in From being very fragmented, the landscape of preparation aimed at implementing a more centralized Swiss social and cultural geography has thus educational system. 2 A list of the websites of Swiss geography departments become more structured, with a series of is to be found at ,http://www.swissgeography.ch/fr/ identifiable and different microclimates. As a about/index.php . . ‘national system of knowledge production’ it 3 The Laboratoire Choˆ ros, founded by the French remains poorly networked though: research geographer Jacques Le´vy. 4 This is a personal impression, which does not build on tends to be realized by groups having more surveys but on numerous informal conversations over links with geographers outside the borders of the years. This popular perception is important in a the country than within them. country where theory and abstraction is regarded with The policy of the Swiss government in recent suspicion. 5See,http://www.geo.unige.ch/Recherche/collecter/ years has been to foster the development of a news_old.php. . limited number of poles of research, endowed 6 It has counted as regular members: Gunnar Olsson, with important long-term (twelve years) fund- Allan Pred, Franco Farinelli, Ole Michael Jensen, ing and steering national and international Enzo Guarrasi, Dagmar Reichert and Ola So¨ derstro¨ m. 7 But also because nature preservation movements and thematic research networks. This policy has had the natural sciences in the universities have always little impact on social and cultural geography in been strong in Switzerland. Switzerland so far, as no existing pole relates to 8See ,http://www.unige.ch/ses/geo/Recherches/ these sub-disciplines. But the trend goes clearly EquipeMontagnes.html. . 9 The first issue came out in 2005. in the direction of enhanced collaboration 10 See ,www.migration-population.ch. . between research teams in the different depart- 11 Its Alleingang (solitary path) as a Sonderfall (excep- ments. In the years to come, Swiss social and tion), to use German words very commonly used in the cultural geography is therefore likely, on the one public debate to qualify the country’s political singularity. hand, to be more present than it has been in the 12 See ,http://sotomo.geo.unizh.ch/research/ . . past in the main peer-reviewed journal and 13 See ,http://www2.unine.ch/geographie/page9971. catalogues of international publishers15 and, on html. . 14 For instance, 13 per cent in Lausanne. the other, to create more visible networks and 15 More and more young postdoctoral students are now poles of research in the domain. Let us hope that spending a few years in British and North American this will not happen at the cost of the capacity departments where there is a strong tradition in social for innovation and creativity that Swiss social and cultural geography. and cultural geography has, on different occasions, demonstrated in the past. References Acknowledgements Allemand, S., Ascher, F. and Le´vy, J. (eds) (2004) Les sens du mouvement. Paris: Belin. Many thanks to Rob Kitchin for giving me Backhaus, N. (1998) Globalisation and marine resource such an impossible task ... and to all the Swiss use in Bali, in King, V. (ed.) Environmental Challenges 12

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