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Today, populations in Switzerland’s mountain villages continue to decline. While the plains, are seeing the arrival of a highly mobile neo-urban population, who tend to shop in the big supermarkets and spend weekends in other regions.

Reweaving the social fabric in the run-up to 2024 means inventing new, dynamic and meaningful projects for all residents. So how do you work with local people to bring a village back to life? How can we combine terroir and innovation to reinvent a meaningful economic and cultural activity?

To find out, I went to meet..:

• Sébastien Olesen, director of the PALP festival, and winner with his team of various awards, including the Prix Montagne 2022. PALP is a music and culture festival that spans the whole of the Valais. And who has set up a host of innovative projects in the village of Bruson, in the Val de Bagnes.
• Geographer Pierre Dessemontet talks about Switzerland’s demographic evolution over the last few decades.

Interview: Chantal Peyer
Director: Aline Blanchard

Some photos of the village of Bruson

References
– PALP village
– PALP Festival
– Traditions as drivers of innovation, Sébastien Olesen’s TedXMartigny conference.
– Representative survey: the Swiss population wants good economic development prospects for mountain regions, Regiosuisse.
– Internal migration in Switzerland: practices and impacts, Swiss Federal Statistical Office.
– La montagne suisse en politique, Gilles Rudaz and Bernard Debardieux, collection le savoir suisse, 2013 (a slightly old, but interesting book on the subject of Swiss policy towards non-urban regions).

Support
The podcast “2040, j’y vais!” is made possible thanks to the support of the Giovannini Foundation, the canton of Vaud, the city of Fribourg, the city of Meyrin, EPER, One Planet Lab and Services Industriels de Genève.