ABSTRACT
This chapter examines what is perhaps the normal brief of most development initiatives in mountain areas: the introduction of new techniques, new institutions and above all the development of the cash economy. This meshes very closely with the population and environmental factors examined in previous chapters but is often considered in isolation as part of the ‘modernisation’ of mountain regions. This process is often connected with the penetration of capitalism but it has equal force when considered under the umbrella of state socialism, for instance in the mountains of the former USSR. The account that follows is somewhat arbitrarily divided into sections that look at agriculture, industry and tourism, but it begins with a discussion of the question of the political framework of mountain areas. Much of the theoretical discussion can be examined in the literature on political geography (Taylor 1993; Agnew 1997).
