The commodification of mountain natures in the eco-climate crisis - The Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics and the Dolomites

This chapter analyzes the commodification of mountain natures in the eco-climate crisis by focusing on the Dolomites, in particular the institutional and organizational processes involved in the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. By adopting a political ecology perspective and ethnographic methods, it discusses politics, visions, and narratives of mountain futures as expressed through infrastructural development projects launched by governance actors at multiple different scales. The evidence shows that a mountain nature exploitation logic is being reproduced through a naturalized valorization and the very idea of accumulation by sustainability, despite the contemporary effects of the eco-climate crisis. However, this logic has been increasingly challenged by a heterogeneous counternarrative of mountain futures that aims to move beyond a no-limits commodification of mountains and envision a radical reconfiguration of nature-society interactions.