Teaching Anarchist Geographies: Elisée Reclus in Brussels and “The Art of Not Being Governed”
Résumé
This paper addresses the issue of how to teach anarchist geographies, as discussed by the current literature in this field. To this end, I analyse an exceptional archival source, i.e., the notes taken by a student of anarchist geographer Elisée Reclus during the classes that Reclus gave at the New University in Brussels. These notes are the only surviving document able to shed light on the short teaching experience Reclus had at the end of his career (1894-1905). Drawing upon Benedict Anderson's notions of " anti-colonial imagination " and of different " frameworks of comparison " , I show how Reclus tried to perform an anarchist geographical teaching by simultaneously embracing empathy toward cultural differences and universal feelings of justice and international solidarity. Therefore, he taught a non-statist geography by showing his students what James Scott calls " the art of not being governed " , addressing the examples of the egalitarian traditions of some non-European peoples, together with their anti-authoritarian and anti-colonial struggles. Finally, I explain how this case can help to elucidate the present-day debates on performing radical teaching approaches inside and outside the academy. This paper addresses the problem of how to teach anarchist geographies, which has been raised by recent works on radical pedagogies (Rouhani 2012; Springer, Lopes de Souza and White 2015) in the context of the international rediscovery of anarchist geographies, their roots and genealogies (Springer 2016, Springer, Ince, Pickerill, Brown and Barker 2012). If anarchist and anti-authoritarian practices are largely discussed in geography, their application to teaching oscillates
Domaines
GéographieOrigine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
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