Altitude Matters. How Urban Super Rich People Make Super Elitist Alps.

The intervention we propose is based on a multi-site fieldwork developed in the French and Swiss Alps between 2020 and 2024. We have been inquiring the various environmental, social, economic and cultural elements that mark transnational super-rich presence in the field-sites by looking at their mobility and consumption patterns, lifestyles and behaviors. Making themselves at home in the Alps implies creating and fostering elite institutions for sociability and conspicuous consumption, steering architectural and infrastructural adjustments, advocating for secure and protective environments. By reflecting on traditional and more recent elite destinations, urban luxury outposts in the great outdoors, we will contribute to the field of super-rich studies while addressing the issue of climate and alpine gentrification.