The Geographical Tradition on the move: The transnational travels of a classic

Abstract

Engaging in a dialogue with the other contributors to this forum on spatialities of science and the deepening of historical work on geographical thought in the last few decades, I reflect on the impact of The Geographical Tradition on geographical traditions other than the Anglo‐American one, analysing its citations and receptions in scholarly publications in French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian.

The Geographical Tradition and the challenges of geography geographised

“…In his commentary, Federico Ferretti () takes up the fortunes of The Geographical Tradition beyond the English‐speaking world and thus the role of translation – both literal and metaphorical – in the circulation of thought. Federico perceives that intellectual endeavour does not diffuse seamlessly across space and time, and that linguistic and cultural conditions can foster or impede the spread of knowledge.…”

“…As Federico also points out, there are no full translations of The Geographical Tradition into other languages (Ferretti, ). By contrast, another of my books, Putting Science in Its Place , is now available in Japanese and is currently being translated into Korean.…”

“…But more. Federico observes that, in some settings, authors provided “militant” interpretations of The Geographical Tradition (Ferretti, , p. 2) in order to challenge conventional views of the discipline, and that the book was appropriated for very different epistemological and political purposes in different places. All of this reminded me that authorial intention, however vital for trying to figure out what any text was intended to mean, is relatively unimportant in recounting its fortunes as it moves from place to place and is imbued with meanings of one sort or another.…”

Reappraising David Livingstone'sThe Geographical Tradition: A quarter of a century on

“…And so we are forced to confront the limits, omissions, and exclusions inherent in the contextual reading offered in The Geographical Tradition . Below, each of Craggs (), Ferretti (), Maddrell () (who builds on a key feminist critique of The Geographical Tradition by Rose, , that also appeared in Transactions ) and Van Meeteren () identify absent figures, texts, and voices – adding to those identified in previous engagements – which in their view skew the narrative developed in the book, a wider issue for histories of geography, that is perhaps more often reiterated as a problem than resolved (Keighren, ). Similarly, Scott Kirsch (in Keighren et al., , p. 255) notes how The Geographical Tradition had “served to open the subject” and had been “personally radicalizing in some ways,” but how “today, to a more diverse and international graduate student population, and with situated histories of science becoming more or less mainstream, The Geographical Tradition seems helplessly Euro‐centric.” Indeed.…”

Modos de escrever histórias

“…Embora o livro de Livingstone (1992) não tenha sido traduzido, e apesar de somente pouco mais de 10% das suas citações no Google Acadêmico serem oriundas de trabalhos em francês, português, espanhol e italiano, Ferretti (2019c) identifica uma ampla variedade de apropriações da obra na Europa Continental e na América Latina. No decorrer dos anos desde sua publicação, o livro, que serviu às mais diversas agendas políticas e acadêmicas, teve seu conteúdo recriado à mesma medida de seu deslocamento linguístico-cultural (Ferretti, 2019c). Mais que isso, se considerarmos o imbricamento essencial da língua com as formas de pensamento, conclusão a que chegaram incontáveis psicólogos no século XX (e não somente nele), a realocação cultural de um texto por intermédio da tradução não é matéria tão simples.…”