Les espaces du mouvement végétarien en France (1880-1914)

Abstract

From the 1880s onwards, vegetarian societies began to develop in France with the aim of addressing social problems through meat abstinence. This movement takes place in a context shaped by the transnational circulation of reformist ideas. But it was also intertwined with local and spatially embedded stakes, which determine the promoted practices. This article takes a close look at the social composition of this vegetarian movement, to analyze the way in which it combines different dimensions of space: the expected space of action, that of actual practices, and the everyday space in which it is grounded. We focus on the study of the residences and mobility of the movement’s members. These different scales influence the discourse, practices, and the framing of the vegetarian cause, during a period when it was still being constructed, from the 1880s to the eve of World War I.

Keywords

• vegetarianism
• Lebensreform
• vegetarian society
• naturism
• philanthropy