Actors and project dynamics in the history of an impossible territory conversion: Abondance, a small ski resort in the Northern Alps
The village resort of Abondance, in the Northern French Alps, decided in the spring of 2007 to shut down its ski area, which was facing economic difficulties, with the objective of converting it into a cultural tourism destination designed around the Gothic heritage of the region. However, this new project raised strong opposition from the locals and, after many complications, the ski lifts were rehabilitated and the cultural tourism project abandoned. Almost ten years after this controversial episode, this study offers a social, historical and political analysis of the challenges and stakeholders dynamics of this non-conversion, in other word, of the continuity of low mountain range winter sports activities in Abondance. The results highlight the dynamics of a territorial attachment to a particular economy, in this case winter sports; an attachment especially motivated by the power relations between the quickly declining agricultural world (unfavorable to winter sports) and the tourism sector. The life stories of many of the tourism stakeholders show this leisure economy to be a sort of social revenge.