Research in the Alps is crucial for understanding natural hazards, climate- and hazard related risks and socio-ecological changes. At the same time, there is growing awareness that how we do research in mountain regions matters just as much as what we study. In many Alpine regions, the research agendas, the case study selection and the choice of methodology are strongly shaped by external experts, funding schemes and institutions, while local actors live with the day-to-day consequences of how hazards and risks are framed and studied within existing knowledge hierarchies. However, these dynamics do not affect all local actors in the same way. Experiences of participation, available knowledge and distribution of benefits are shaped by intersecting social positions such as gender, age, livelihood, language, and place-based inequalities.

Therefore, debates on research ethics, “parachute science,” and justice in knowledge production are highly relevant for Alpine contexts, where remoteness, uneven power relations and dependence on external knowledge can amplify the impacts – positive or negative – of research. The core focus of this session is on research practices, relationships and power dynamics in the production of knowledge about hazards, climate risk and environmental change.

We invite contributions that critically reflect on research practices in the Alpine region, particularly in relation to natural hazards, climate and hazard risk and related fields. We are interested in how research relationships between academic and non-academic actors (e.g., municipalities, NGOs, protected area managers, tourism actors, farmers and local residents) are negotiated in practice, and what kinds of impacts – beneficial, ambiguous, or harmful – these interactions generate. We particularly encourage reflexive analyses of research projects, collaborations, and funding or institutional arrangements that influence the practical implementation of Alpine research.

We welcome conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions that engage with questions such as:

• Who defines research questions and methods in Alpine field research – and whose knowledge is valued?
• How are local and non-academic actors involved (or not) in the design, data collection, interpretation and communication of hazard and climate risk research?
• Which forms and dimensions of justice are at stake in research collaborations, and how do they manifest in practice?
• How do researchers address issues such as trust building, research fatigue, unmet expectations, feedback obligations and longer-term responsibilities towards local communities and institutions?
• Which tools, guidelines or institutional arrangements help to make research more accountable, reciprocal and beneficial for those most affected by hazards and environmental change?

By bringing together social and natural scientists, early-career and senior researchers, as well as practitioners, this session aims to foster a dialogue on more careful, reflexive and just research practices in the European Alps and other mountain regions, with particular attention to how intersectional inequalities shape research designs, participation, knowledge production, and outcomes.