In alpine disaster be one of the common people (8)
I believe the answer is:
plebeian
'one of the common people' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in alpine disaster be' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'disaster' indicates anagramming the letters.
'alpine' is an anagram of 'pleian'.
'pleian' placed around 'be' is 'PLEBEIAN'.
(Other definitions for plebeian that I've seen before include "Non-U?" , "Lacking in refinement" , "(Roman) commoner" , "Lower-class; commoner" , "not refined" .)