Habitus and disposition in high-risk mountain-climbing

Title: Habitus and disposition in high-risk mountain-climbing
Creator: Bunn, Matthew
Relation: Body & Society Vol. 22, Issue 1, p. 92-114
Publisher Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1357034X15612897
Publisher: Sage Publications
Resource Type: journal article
Date: 2015
Description: Habitus has been an attractive concept for works examining body-centric practices. This article draws on interviews and 18 months of ethnographic research with high-risk climbers primarily throughout North America. An important guide to this research has been the concept of habitus. However, this article demonstrates that there are limits to habitus being used to address the moment of action. The scope of habitus ranges widely, limiting its capacity to effectively address the experience of the individual. Rather than abandoning the concept, habitus can be extended through a reconceptualization drawing on the use of echoes as a metaphor. Using echoes as an allegorical mode of understanding dispositional acquisition and activation, the embodied echo can more radically and precisely explore the habitus in motion during the intensely body-centric practice of alpine climbing. This is particularly critical when exploring the use of speed as a form of safety in the alpine environment.
Subject: Bourdieu; climbing; edgework; embodiment; habitus
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1357306
Identifier: uon:31900
Identifier: ISSN:1460-3632
Language: eng
Reviewed

		Thumbnail	File	Description	Size	Format