Globes, savoir situé et éducation à la beauté : Patrick Geddes géographe et sa relation avec les Reclus

Abstract

Résumé/Abstract

The spatiality of geography teaching and cultures of alternative education: the ‘intuitive geographies’ of the anarchist school in Cempuis (1880–1894)

“…Thus, 'initiatives in Wales followed on from the resurrection of nature study in Scotland and England at the turn of the century inspired and led by the Scottish polymath Patrick Geddes'. 47 As Geddes' influence on all British geography and planning in the 20th century is undeniable 48 and his closeness to anarchist geographers like Kropotkin and Reclus is clear, 49 it is possible to hypothesise that the posterity of the pedagogical movement which I am addressing, in the Anglophone world, transited indirectly through Geddes' works, which played a not negligible role in the shaping of later fieldwork and teaching practices.…”

“…40 It is clear that the so-called natural methods were immediately endorsed by anarchist geographers like Kropotkin and Reclus (this latter attended Ritter's courses in the University of Berlin) and some of their collaborators like Patrick Geddes, 41 as an alternative to an ideological state education. 42 Guillaume also dedicated to Pestalozzi a chapter of his book Études Révolutionnaires (Revolutionary Studies) dealing with topical figures in the construction of the idea of secular education during the French Revolution. In that chapter, Guillaume offers a rather original interpretation of Pestalozzi, investigating his (then) little-known participation in the revolutionary movement at the end of the 18th century, as well as his contribution to the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Switzerland.…”

“…129 Reclus was likewise one of the most quoted references, not the least, because of his direct links with some of the founders and inspirers of the school. 130 Invoking Reclus and Geikie, the teachers of the Ferrer School argued that for children, books on natural sciences are useless; what is more needed is learning to observe on the spot, to do botany in fields and woods, to study atmosphere, stones, insects, birds, and animals along the way and in the midst of natural surroundings. 131 In one of the last issues of the school bulletin, we find one of the most expressive definitions for the adoption of a learning space that includes open-air practices (Figure 3), borrowed from the French historian Jules Michelet: 'The human flower, according to Michelet, is the one which needs the most sun'.…”

History and philosophy of geography I

“…The biographical impulse that continues to characterize much historical scholarship on geography (e.g. Ferretti, 2015) is one frequently linked with another instinctive concern: the genealogical. The desire, at least in respect to geography's disciplinary history, to trace lines of intellectual descent, if only to write ourselves into that family structure, is a palpable one, but, as Lorimer and Withers (2015: 5) caution, it is alone insufficient: 'To chart a subject's life and work according to the academic equivalent of patrilineal bloodline may be factually accurate in specific instances, but when too closely adhered to it may risk the resulting narrative being narrowly reductionist or worse still, simply plain.…”