Transhumance as a Prism. Toward a Planetary Rural Geography of Mountain Space

ABSTRACT Transhumance is a marginal—yet crucial—practice within mountain and rural geographies at a global scale. The term refers to a wide range of extensive grazing systems characterized by the seasonal movement of herds and flocks between different altitudes, within diverse governance systems. In recent years, this practice has gained relevance in scholarly debates and in international agendas, following its inscription on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2019. In this context, a clear and incisive geographical reading of transhumance remains marginal. This paper addresses this gap by reviewing the rich yet fragmented debates on transhumance across ecology, heritage and political economy, while proposing an understanding of this practice through the lens of “planetary rural geographies”. More specifically, we use transhumance as a prism through which to examine the relational and transcalar logics shaping the material and symbolic production of rurality and mountainness. In doing so, the paper advances a research agenda for a planetary rural geography of mountain space, shedding light on the entanglements between rural, mountain, and urban spaces within planetary political, cultural, economic, and more‐than‐human processes.