Minimalism and lightweight backpacking in France: a material culture of detachment

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.”