Contenu du sommaire : 1920-2020 : Centenaire de l'Association de Géographes Français

The study of controversies makes it possible to develop an epistemology which associates ideas to the social dimension of scientific life. It allows actors to be more widely integrated into reflective practice. In geography, the period of structuration of classical geography at the end of the 19th century and the period of the emergence of the "new geography" in the 1970s are essential moments of controversy. We examine in this text two types of controversies : those relating to the positioning of geography between the science of nature and the science of society on the one hand, and those concerning the purposes of geography and its place in the city on the other hand.

The BAGF in 1924 is a small newsletter very much influenced by its founder Emmanuel de Martonne, which gives a predominant place to structural geomorphology. After 1945, it gives a greater share to human geography but remains within the framework of classical French geography. It transforms after 1967 into a collection of thematic sessions, open to new issues. The link between articles and communication sessions fades after 1985 and what is now an academic journal reflects the wide diversity of a geography seen as a social science.

Since the end of the 19th century, French geographers have been going on the field. What do they think of the practise? How do they direct it? Although it's always been a regular practise in Geography, its conception has changed considerably and reveals the evolution of the discipline. After the turmoil of the 70ies for geographers, some are questioning it. It is still very common today and in spite of its various forms, its modern conception shows how the discipline has truly become a social science.

Finally, the 20th century gave geographers the opportunity to rise above the surface of the earth to observe from a distance. While contemplating the earth from the top was an enchantment for the geographers of the beginning of the century who experienced and expressed it enthusiastically, it took a long time for them to make common use of it in their publications, which is shown, in particular, by a systematic review of the BAGF journal since its first issue. Today, oblique aerial photography is marginalized by more rigorous documents, but the oblique view, which retains the reality of landscapes, can bring much to the geographer, if put in such order as to highlight the spatial organization which is proposed in one single look.

The exploration of the Bulletins of the Association of French Geographers since 1924 reveals a double paradigm : that of the dichotomous approach, opposing the human realities to the realities of nature but also that of the bias of the analytical approach of objects of nature, reinforcing divisions into subdisciplines of physical geography. During the 100 years, during the initial phase, until the years 1950-1960, the natural environment is central ; then from the 1960s to the 1990s, the period is dominated by the approach of the natural components of space, unrelated to human societies ; finally, since the 1990s, issues of territorialized nature management predominate. The evolution shows a decline of operational stakeholders in favor of the academic world. The geography of the studied sites makes it possible to approach the question of the stakes of this geographical research. The Critical Physical Geography, little developed in France, allows to shed light on the motivations and presuppositions of this French geography seen through the BAGF and for which it is possible to formulate a certain number of recommendations.

The Bulletin of the Association of French Geographers has now been fully digitized. Online issues from 1924 to 2012 are provided by Persée, later ones by Open Edition. An analysis of more than three thousand articles, among which a thousand deal with geomorphology — whether in a narrow (i.e. structural and climatic geomorphology) or a wider sense that includes environmental geography and anthropogeomorphology — documents the gradual replacement of the Davisian cycle of erosion as an overarching paradigm by the model of erosion systems advocated by Cholley and Tricart from the 1950s onwards. The naturalistic study of planet Earth is also shown to have gradually given way to an anthropocentric frame of reference, with likewise a shift in perspective from geological deep time to historic time. The latter spans the “longue durée” of civilizations as addressed in geoarchaeology to the current affairs of modern societies, dealing for example with the geomorphological aspects of so-called natural hazards. This longitudinal study of the journal's output evidences profound transformations in the profile of geomorphology as a discipline. Broadening geomorphology to new themes, however, has also resulted in reducing its scope to technical approaches and in somewhat diluting its identity in the melting pot of environmental geography.

Cultural geography was, from the start, a fundamental component of human geography : trying to evaluate the influence of environment on human destiny, it focused on ways of life, but seized them only through their material dimensions ; as a result, its scope remained limited. A first orientation of research developed in this way from Vidal de la Blache to Braudel through Brunhes, Deffontaines, Gourou and de Planhol. Starting in the early seventies, the cultural turn conceived culture as the DNA of social life, analyzed the influence of modes of communication and memorization on its forms, studied the imaginaries it gave birth to - those more peculiarly that gave it a normative dimension - and stressed the social mechanisms it created. It reshaped the whole discipline and explained the problems of our world.

This article, published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Association of French Geographers, lists and analyses the articles published in the Bulletin de l'Association de Géographes Français (BAGF) since its foundation in 1924 and up to the present day. The article makes a double observation : on one hand, the late publication (after the 1960s) of articles on the theme of tourism ; on the other hand, the low number of articles published on this theme, even in recent years. This situation is not specific to the BAGF but characterizes more globally geography journals. It seems to testify to a certain "historical" blindness on the part of geographers to the phenomenon of tourism. The article thus notes a discrepancy between the cultural, social, economic and spatial importance of tourism and the place it occupies in the work of geographers. It also looks at the way the various themes related to tourism have been gradually grasped by French geographers. While the number of articles on tourism published in the BAGF in recent years shows a modest quantitative increase, the themes are gradually diversifying into both disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches.

To reflect the evolution of the discipline, we have sought to understand the factors behind its growth over the past 50 years and the different research streams that have come together. The article also provides an assessment in terms of strengths and weaknesses.

French biogeography has undergone changes in its approaches over the course of the years, constantly renewing its questions and methods. Crossing several periods during the 20th century, the geographers' biogeography experienced a true renaissance in the 1960s, marked by the legacy of H. Gaussen, P. Rey (cartography of vegetation and plant associations) and L. Emberger (bioclimates). In the 1970s, the field of study focused on forest landscapes, and was complemented by the concepts of ‘geosystem' and ‘sylvosystem'. French biogeography was a pioneer in taking into account the action of human societies, as early as the 1970s, in line with H. Elhaï's critique of the notion of climax. From the 1980s onwards, this led to a reflection on the relationship man-nature, one of the developments taking into consideration the geohistorical dimension, while Emberger's work was extended to phyto-climatology. Meanwhile, the irruption of new data, methods and tools has profoundly renewed the analysis since the 1990s. Today, French biogeographers are in touch with environmental concerns, integrating new issues, thus tracing an original path.

For a century, the work of geographers published by the Bulletin of the Association of French Geographers has testified to the epistemological evolution of regional geography. For a long time directed by great figures in physical geography, the journal which gave first place to the natural region has nonetheless remained open, from its beginnings, to the essence of Vidalian thought. In the same way, in the context of the epistemological rupture of the New Geography of the 1970s, the editorial line has largely opened itself to new scientific trends. The regional question has been fully renewed by focusing increasingly on economic and political issues. From a bulletin devoted to excursions in physical geography, the journal has therefore gradually transformed into a generalist review. The published articles demonstrate by their thematic and methodological approach all the diversity of regional reality while proposing an ever-renewed vision of regional analysis.

School and university geographies emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and were built concomitantly and convergently on a Vidalian model. The questioning of Vidalian theory and the epistemological crisis in the middle of the 20th century profoundly modified the content of teaching at the university. The teaching of geography at university and secondary school are also driven by exogenous dynamics that are similar but lead to different evolutions. In school geography, the changes come later. The changes take place at the end of the 2000s and show a certain creative autonomy in relation to geography education.

The geography of oceans and seas was originally intended for students who wished to become naval officers before the subject was taught in university to geography students and others with an interest in the field. With the growing awareness of its importance for society, however, the subject is now more widely taught across the entire geography curriculum.