The growing interest in mountain regions in recent times has stimulated a discussion about research directions and the need for comparative approaches. The human dimension in development processes in high-mountain areas regularly fails to be replicated by appropriate analysis because of a lack of applicable methods and relevant information. It is difficult to obtain comparative data and to differentiate mountain societies within nation states from other parts of the country?s aggregated data, so characteristic of national censuses, for instance, inhibits comparative mountain research. In the present contribution, case studies from the South and Central Asian high-mountain regions are introduced. An interpretative approach is outlined, which makes use of and projects widely known human development indicators onto different levels of regionalization. In this manner, a better understanding of the specific problems in mountain regions can be approached.
