Hut Wardens Facing Change. A Sociology of Ordinary Politicizations in Mountain Huts
Abstract
This article offers a perspective on the various forms of ordinary politicization within mountain huts. Starting from the idea that individuals, in their everyday lives, implicitly formulate political readings of the world and draw moral boundaries between groups and practices, it examines the stance taken by hut wardens in the face of change and conflict within their mountain huts. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in five French mountain huts, supplemented by interviews and a lexicometric analysis of a corpus of student synthesis papers (notes de synthèse), the article shows that this ordinary politicization is expressed at three levels. First, the institutions of professional socialization (union, university training) build politically transferable dispositions, with the majority of future hut wardens perceiving change, whether social or climatic, as a threat to the identity of mountain huts. Next, conflicts with users, when their practices are judged illegitimate, give rise to scaling-up in generality through which hut wardens mobilize a moral order to defend their dominant status within the space of the mountain hut. Finally, the material and symbolic appropriation of this space (decorations, posters, behavioral injunctions) constitutes a reified form of this politicization, through which hut wardens impose a legitimate vision of the mountain on their users. By focusing on a professional body seemingly far removed from the formal institutions of politics, the article aims to make a modest contribution to consolidating the notion of ordinary politicization, while also casting a politicizing eye on mountain huts and the activity of hut-keeping.
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BibTeX
@article{steffan2026wardens,
title = {{Hut Wardens Facing Change. A Sociology of Ordinary Politicizations in Mountain Huts}},
author = {Louise Steffan},
journal = {Revue de Géographie Alpine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.4000/17147},
url = {https://doi.org/10.4000/17147},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Hut Wardens Facing Change. A Sociology of Ordinary Politicizations in Mountain Huts
AU - Louise Steffan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Revue de Géographie Alpine
DO - 10.4000/17147
UR - https://doi.org/10.4000/17147
AB - This article offers a perspective on the various forms of ordinary politicization within mountain huts. Starting from the idea that individuals, in their everyday lives, implicitly formulate political readings of the world and draw moral boundaries between groups and practices, it examines the stance taken by hut wardens in the face of change and conflict within their mountain huts. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in five French mountain huts, supplemented by interviews and a lexicometric analysis of a corpus of student synthesis papers (notes de synthèse), the article shows that this ordinary politicization is expressed at three levels. First, the institutions of professional socialization (union, university training) build politically transferable dispositions, with the majority of future hut wardens perceiving change, whether social or climatic, as a threat to the identity of mountain huts. Next, conflicts with users, when their practices are judged illegitimate, give rise to scaling-up in generality through which hut wardens mobilize a moral order to defend their dominant status within the space of the mountain hut. Finally, the material and symbolic appropriation of this space (decorations, posters, behavioral injunctions) constitutes a reified form of this politicization, through which hut wardens impose a legitimate vision of the mountain on their users. By focusing on a professional body seemingly far removed from the formal institutions of politics, the article aims to make a modest contribution to consolidating the notion of ordinary politicization, while also casting a politicizing eye on mountain huts and the activity of hut-keeping.
SN - 0035-1121
SN - 1760-7426
ER -