We had two special issues on anarchism yesterday (see here) and today’s we’ve a paper hot off the press – Federico Ferretti’s ‘“They have the right to throw us out”: Élisée Reclus’ New Universal Geography‘.

In his Antipode paper, Federico – who works in the University of Geneva’s Department of Geography and Environment – explores the anarchist and geographer Élisée Reclus’ encyclopaedic Nouvelle Géographie Universelle (NGU). He argues that the nature of Reclus’ argument and its representations of Europe, otherness and colonialism are today contested; it’s unclear what insights it might offer to contemporary students of colonialism and post-colonialism. Engaging with two emblematic cases – British rule over India and French occupation of Algeria – as they are presented in the NGU, and considering Reclus’ analysis of imperialism and his novel critique of colonial power, Federico demonstrates that far from being conventional, the NGU is a radical and interesting resource for those struggling to construct a critical discourse on Europe, otherness and colonialism.