Living on the Sea. Lifestyle Mobilities: Ethnographic Fieldwork in a Marine Environment
This article is based on a nineteen-month monographic ethnography in the marina of Dzaoudzi (Mayotte). The research site is both a point of circulation and an anchoring point where different life paths intersect and distinguish each other. Empirical data obtained through participatory observation highlights these individual trajectories and the multiple but converging reasons that led to this lifestyle choice described as atypical. The contribution of this study is to demonstrate that, although lifestyle mobilities are a goal for the majority of respondents, they can be transformed into lifestyle migrations or temporary mobility. By presenting the different facets of socialization within this community, the article also highlights the insider/outsider relationships and questions the phenomena of precariousness and marginalization within the group. The study also emphasizes on the intergenerational distinctions concerning the motivations of this choice of a nomadic lifestyle. Intergenerational cohesion transcends these distinctions, with respondents recognizing themselves as peers, bound by a lifestyle based on a common passion for the ocean and the ideal of freedom, as well as a rejection of the postmodern society.