1170 | 399 | Aosta Valley, France, French and Frenchness: contested borders and identity construction in the era of COVID-19 and climate change

The Aosta Valley – an autonomous region in Northern Italy – is a fascinating example of the varying correlations between bordering processes, language, territoriality, and identity. This article aims to explore how climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic are impacting this complex borderscape._x000D_
Linguistically, the French language was and is at the core of the region’s political and cultural identity construction: a perfect bilingualism is respected in public institutions. French also acts as vector to strengthen the region’s international relations with the francophone world, and fluidify the management of cross-border infrastructure and INTERREG programmes. French is hence a double-edged tool of re-bordering and “othering” nationally; and of de-bordering and cooperation abroad. Nonetheless, in practice, French is far less used than Italian. Considering that French is mostly spoken in the school context, the article investigates how lockdown and online teaching may have accelerated this erosion process. _x000D_
The article further investigates the impacts of climate change and the pandemic on the institutional border. Indeed, despite the region’s long history of cross-border cooperation, the contested position of the border in the Mont Blanc area recurrently gives rise to tensions at the local and national level. This dispute is more inherent to questions of (self-)representation than territoriality, as it determines who owns the highest peak in Europe. Climate change further complexifies the question, as the disagreement has prevented the institutionalisation of the “mobile border” concept, as has been done in the Italo-Swiss and -Austrian borders. The glacier’s movement is hence not formally documented, hindering the possibility of reaching an agreement. Border-related tensions have also been exacerbated by the pandemic. Restrictions in cross-border movement and differences in containment measures have led to several frictions, especially in cross-border sky stations.

Isabella Traeger
Politecnico di Milano

ID Abstract: 399