Prof. Irene Becci, Dr. PhD

A quarry or a sacred mount? About the relation to nature in the context of urbanization

Under the current circumstances of climate change and increased ecological awareness, urban dwellers are developing ambivalent relations to nature. This project elaborates on a case of ecological activism for the preservation of a mountain in Switzerland against extractivist practices. For over 75 years the site has been a cement quarry strongly valued by Swiss economic actors, who use ecological arguments to justify the local production of this construction material. While environmental activists, some locals and most cosmopolitans, have opposed these excavations for years, a major change happened in 2006, when archaeologists discovered a mysterious Celtic site on the mountain. The focus of the text is on the occupation that occurred in the Winter 2020-1 by activists who asked the excavations to be stopped to safeguard biodiversity and archaeological heritage. It uses first- and second-hand collected empirical data (grey and published literature, interviews, and observations).

The study of this case shows how eco-spiritual views and practices are enmeshed in the experience of a more-than-human actor, the mountain. Not only was the hill reconsidered as sacred through the archeological findings about Celtic rituals, it was also addressed by the activists as a friend sacrificed by Western capitalism while also offering harsh conditions of survival and moments of enchantment. Contrary to a monolithic and somewhat intellectual notion of “eco-spirituality”, this case shows how varied the uses and mobilizations of eco-spiritual views and practices are under changing circumstances and how embedded they are in an urban culture.