Abstract
Mountain cities specializing in tourism increasingly aim at valorizing cultural and natural heritage to compete for global attention. In this context, the postmodern urbanization of mountains plays a decisive role: driven by touristification processes, it alters the sociospatial and economic configuration of mountain cities and their hinterlands, which are becoming vertically arranged “operational landscapes”, and profoundly changes city–mountain interactions. To foster sustainable development in urbanizing mountain destinations, it is crucial to understand these settlements’ embeddedness in both (1) nature and culture and (2) space and time. The Andean city of Huaraz is a case in point: an intermediate center in highland Peru, it is characterized by a strategic location in the Callejón de Huaylas (Santa Valley), influenced by Hispanic and Quechua culture and dominated by the glaciers of the Cordillera Blanca. Combining (1) a theoretical framework that considers planetary urbanization, touristification and vertical complementarity and (2) a case study technique inspired by urban environmental profiles, we trace the development of the city–mountain relation in Huaraz, focusing on the way in which the material and non-material dimensions of the surrounding mountains influence urban development. We conclude with a call for overcoming a set of three persisting dichotomies that continue to impair sustainable development.
Highlights
No region, no locality in the country can be described today without noting its close dependence on or connection to every other place in the country
Adopting an idiographic and problem-oriented case study method, the present paper explores how the material and non-material dimensions of the mountain ranges in the central Peruvian Andes of Áncash have influenced the location, substance, form, structure, function and genesis of the mountain city of Huaraz over time
From a theoretical point of view, we draw on three interrelated concepts: (1) planetary urbanization; (2) touristification; and (3) verticality and vertical complementarity
Summary
No locality in the country can be described today without noting its close dependence on or connection to every other place in the country. America in general [4], and the Peruvian Andes in particular, are a perfect case in point to better understand the past, present and future of mountain cities in the Global South, and to reflect on requirements for successfully attaining Sustainable Development Goal 11 in urbanizing mountain areas. From a theoretical point of view, we draw on three interrelated concepts: (1) planetary urbanization; (2) touristification; and (3) verticality and vertical complementarity. These notions are put together under the umbrella of the montology approach oriented towards sustainable development [9]. We explore how a settlement location in such a particular natural and cultural setting influences urbanization, environmental conservation and tourism development, induces processes of touristification in the city and its hinterland at different altitudinal zones and alters the materially manifested nature/culture Gestalt of the Santa Valley or Callejón de Huaylas
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