Friedrich Ratzel, géographie et sciences sociales en France (1890–1918) – Centralité et distanciations

Abstract. The reception of Ratzel at the turn of the 20th century coincides with the rise of an academic geography supported by the republican regime and the internationally leading reputation of German geography. But, since the defeat of 1870, French science was driven by the “German challenge”, and the promotion of the social sciences fuelled competition between specialists. Ratzel's reception is characterised by its size, the notoriety of the reviewers and the variety of disciplines concerned. Analysis of the uses and especially of the modes of translation and disciplinary labelling reveals both the ambivalences of the criticism against Ratzel and the contrasting strategies mobilized, according to whether it is a question of founding a modern geography, writing a national geography, or imposing sociology as the master science. Positions then radicalise, accentuating criticism of a science in tune with the Reich's politics and culminating in wartime with the resemantization of the notion of Raum.