Writing the history of geography: what we have learnt – and where to go next

Abstract

Abstract. When writing the history of geography the subject is, customarily, one's own national geography. Moreover, until the 1960s, the discipline's history was generally told by recollecting the life and works of eminent scholars. Since then, the subject has been internationalised, owing a great deal to the IGU's commission on "History of Geographical Thought". It has also been broadened and aligned with the emerging sociology of science and later the "cultural turn"; so biographical narratives lost ground in favour of thematic studies. Nevertheless, most kept to their own national geography tradition as a frame of reference -whose development they now analysed in non-scientific contexts as well. Due to the expansion of its scope, writing the history of geography lost its exclusivity and became part of our everyday practice. Loosely following Jörn Rüsen (1982), we can distinguish three types of narration that have been employed in writing the history of geography: traditional, exemplary and critical narratives. In different ways, all three reacted to changes within geography. Changes were often perceived as crises and thus brought about attempts to stabilise identity claims through history. Currently we see a new research setting emerging that strives to overcome methodological nationalisms by means of comparative studies and analysing transfer processes. Reflecting upon one's own position is key to this concept. It results in a historiography that studies transnational patterns of the discipline's development. In doing so, it does not only find dense international networks of historical exchange relationships but also sees the researchers themselves as agents in the deconstruction of national stereotypes.

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

“…Si débattre de ce qui est et de ce qui n'est pas de la géographie est une vieille (et parfois mauvaise) habitude de certains géographes, rechercher des antécédents prédisciplinaires est une démarche typique de ce que Ute Wardenga appelle les « lectures exemplaires » de l'histoire de la géographie (Wardenga, 2013). De ce point de vue, il semble bien que Geddes nourrissait le sentiment d'appartenir à la discipline géographique.…”

‘German Theory’: Cosmopolitan geographies, counterfactual histories and the (non)travel of a ‘German Foucault’

“…Counterfactual histories do not only study successful cases of cosmopolitan theory (e.g. Italian Theory), but also cases where translations, travels and circulation across linguistic and epistemological boundaries did not take place as a basis to speculate about what could have potentially happened: Counterfactual intellectual histories make debates and translations discussed in German-speaking or other non-Anglophone territories of thought visible and intelligible for a cosmopolitan geography, rather than to bury them in a ‘provincial’ space of a language-bound scholarly community (Fall, 2013; Graefe, 2013; Houssay-Holzschuch, 2020; Houssay-Holzschuch and Milhaud, 2013; Korf et al., 2013; Minca, 2018; Wardenga, 2013).…”

Luso-Brazilian geographies? The making of epistemic communities in semi-peripheral academic human geography

“…Research on the history and philosophy of geography can play a fundamental role in this endeavor. So far, this work has mostly focused on the Anglophone or Francophone contexts where political regimes have been relatively stable (Claval, 2011; Wardenga, 2013; Craggs and Neate, 2017; Keighren, 2017; Ferretti, 2019a). Recently, the burgeoning literature on other geographical traditions and subaltern geographies has expanded the field into other geographical contexts, particularly those that have not been as politically stable or emerged from long-lasting periods of political constraint over science and academia (Jazeel, 2014; Ferretti and Pedrosa, 2018; Ferretti, 2019a; Ferretti, 2019b).…”

“…Thus, this article provides a novel case to a growing field of global histories of geography that seeks to move away from unified narratives on the history of the discipline, which implies looking carefully at the geographies excluded from the main narratives about the discipline (Keighren et al, 2013;Keighren, 2017;Ferretti, 2019a;Clayton, 2020), particularly non-Anglophone geographies (Buttimer, 1998;Wardenga, 2013;Craggs and Neate, 2017;Ferretti, 2019aFerretti, , 2019b. There is still much to explore about what happens to geographic practice in semiperipheral countries with unstable or highly contrasted political regimes, usually very exposed to changes in international political circumstances, such as the case of Brazil and Portugal.…”