Radical Change in an Extreme Context: Mountaineers Conquering the Darwin Cordillera in Patagonia (Chapter 17)
Abstract
This chapter presents the analysis of a specific episode of the Darwin mountaineering expedition in Patagonia. As part of a project by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French national research agency), the authors conducted a longitudinal case study combined with an in situ and real-time ethnographic study of this expedition. The study of the episode was carried out in close collaboration with linguists Caroline Mellet, Frederique Sitri and Sarah de Vogue, as well as Linda Rouleau and Gilda Simoni. In this extreme context of an expedition to one of the last unexplored territories on the planet, the analysis of this episode sheds light on the process of radical discussion and reconfiguration of the project and can help people understand why it is so difficult, even though the performance or survival of a team is at stake, to abandon its tools, plans, frameworks and implement a radical change.