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ABSTRACT
Minimalism is a growing consumerist approach based on deliberate detachment from one’s material needs and acquisitions. The aim of this paper is to examine a singular case of minimalism which has developed in the sports sector, based on the stylization by detachment of the practice of hiking: ultralight or lightweight backpacking. While the sports market is traditionally characterized by the accumulation and renewal of equipment, this sport subculture aims the radical reduction of equipment weight and is promoted in France by an online community of practice. Lightening one’s equipment implies adopting an original material culture of detachment (mostly by innovation through withdrawal) which goes hand in hand with an alternative subjectivation of practitioners based on a form of voluntary simplicity and asceticism. This enculturation has political consequences, contributing to reconfiguring behaviors, norms and consumer values in the light of alternative markets, partly detaching oneself from “consumer society.”
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 On the nuances between minimalism and voluntary simplicity, see Mangold and Zschau (Citation2019).
2 This process does not prevent, in a second step, the possible attachment to new entities.
3 A website (www.randonner-leger.org i.e. hiking light, referred to as RL in the rest of the article) constitutes the main home of this movement in France. Marginal but not insignificant (over 11,000 members), this community is of interest well beyond its own restricted circle: the site has a total of 200,000 and 400,000 monthly visits, mainly from non-member web surfers. RL was founded in 2005 by a lead user (Oli_v_ier; NB: forum members’ pseudonyms are used in the article) and has progressively been conceived, developed and structured as an “encyclopedia or Wikipedia of lightweight backpacking” (according to one of the administrators – Big Cactus, 41 years old, project leader), as well as a place for discussion and sharing among fans of lighter equipment on the move. In May 2019, there were over 32,500 discussion topics for more than 524,000 messages.
4 The sampling is based on an important diversification of interviewees profile to search and triangulate contrasted discourses and variable implications in acculturation to detachment.
5 I have combined non-participant and open participant observational stance: since 2018, I am identified in the community as “Eric le rouge”, the ‘anthropoMUL’.
6 From the beginning, it has been influenced by Ultralight Backpacking movement which developed in English-speaking countries (particularly the USA) at the end of the 1980s, with its own founding figures (Ray Jardine, Andrew Skurka …), online communities (e.g. www.backpacking.net/makegear.html; https://backpackinglight.com), specialist manufacturers, etc.
7 In French, there is a voluntary and humorous pun around the homophony MUL and mule, pack animal, which carries loads.
8 Whatever the variable goals of the practice: hiking more simply or comfortably, further, longer, quicker or in more difficult and adventurous environments.
9 For example, using refuges or grocery stores for food from time to time (For more detailed information on food consumption see Boutroy and Vignal Citation2018).
13 A great number of these DIY adaptations were first carried out by lead users, before sometimes being taken over by specialized manufacturers.
14 A mass-produced backpack by a distributor brand (Décathlon).
16 In life stories, a number of MULs show a form of disbelief similar to when they discovered RL.
17 As I have experienced myself (backpack deteriorated by excessive cutting), there are many testimonies of failures or excessive detachment, especially at the beginning of one's career. See for example: https://www.randonner-leger.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=17339
18 For bricolage, see infra.
19 Professional guide, Nutzz (35 years old) explained that, during his training, he regularly received sceptical remarks (from trainers, other former trainees) because his "low shoes called into question the dogma of high shoes".
22 Exchanges between MULs and non-MULs during hikes at times show conflicting conceptions.
23 “Hello, so that we can respond to your questions and worries, post your list in the form of a spreadsheet with the weight of each item (weighed if possible or at least the weight given by the manufacturer)” was the immediate response of Gui3gui to Guy who inexpertly only presented some of his equipment (https://www.randonner-leger.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=36091).
24 MULs moreover play with the metaphorical meaning of burden.
25 Message received via my personal RL page: https://www.randonner-leger.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=35733&p=2
26 In reference to a film by Luc Besson (1988) where freedivers escape from society by diving to the bottom of the sea. Several interviewees said they had experienced such a feeling of vertiginous detachment, so much so that they wondered if they would actually come back.
27 This subculture of competing for the lightest backpack aims to have bags that weigh between 1 and 2 kg (except for consumables) and implies a form of extreme detachment.
29 Most of the members say they have had periods of ‘binge reading’ and intense site visiting, at least when they were learning (often spending several hours a day on the website).
31 Adrienne, who used to work for Wikipedia, “thought it was fantastic and I really got into sharing knowledge, into pooling everything, that kind of stuff. And free licenses. Things I see a lot of on RL: a band of geeks who are just as keen on free software as they are on lightweight hiking. (…) For me, they’re actually just hiking geeks”.
32 The community has organized several DIY camps, later significantly renamed as fablabs.
34 Being pragmatic people and sometimes quite technophiles, MULs are not against high tech for certain uses (e.g. GPS for orientation).
38 https://www.randonner-leger.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33801. Oli_v_ier regularly declines partnership offers with brands.
39 Purchases and sales represent most of the subjects, but the title is also an indication of the diversity in the forms of exchange created by the forum.
40 This common practice among MUL practitioners does not have only an economic purpose (buying at the right price, getting money back), but also one that is ecological and ethical (give new life, reduce waste), and sports-related (helping new members become lightweight, sharing original items, etc.).
41 Laxmimittal (who advocates ethical consumerism by favoring local activities) gets angry, for example, at promotion of global platforms on RL:
You don’t know whether or not to buy from Ali[express] because you don’t even know if the product is going to arrive. But if real people with real experiences come and tell you it’s ok, then you can do it, nothing stops you anymore. Ali dreamed of doing it, RL did it: completely free advertising, done by consumers themselves (…). And of course we sell everywhere and pay tax nowhere. It’s not about denouncing such or such [MUL] (…) but rather about regretting the consequences of this mortiferous ‘system’.
42 https://www.randonner-leger.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1923 This thread on the subject of “Voluntary Simplicity and being a MUL in the rest of one’s life” has received over 560 contributions and almost 118,000 views since 2006.
43 In many life stories, responsible consumer practices already existed before becoming a MUL. Yet implementing detachment through and in a leisure activity appears, in all cases, to be a facilitator, even trigger, of a global transformation in consumption cultures.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Eric Boutroy
Eric Boutroy is Senior Lecturer at the UFR STAPS of University Lyon 1, researcher at the Laboratory on Vulnerabilities and Innovation in Sport (L-VIS). Combining sociology and ethnology, he studies accidentology, material innovations and change of practices in outdoor sports.