The introduction and development of handball in France from the eve of thirties to the current decade: ways of diffusion and cultural transfer
Résumé
At the moment, we do not know exactly how or where handball was introduced and developed in France.Because Germany has been considered as the handball’s home country since the interwar period, the Alsatian region usually appears as the area which first introduced handball in France (Picard, 1997; Lacoux, 1998). But is it the only historical area to experiment this cultural transfer? Moreover, were the same networks responsible for the diffusion in France of field handball with 11 players and of the current handball version with 7 players? My research project aims to explain the process of the diffusion of handball by identifying the main leaders, breakthroughs and starting points of development of this physical activity. Three fields are being investigated: 1. the institutional history of handball in conjunction with the political issues, 2. a social history approach through life of the main promoters of the game and 3. a cultural history concerning the varioustechnical and tactical aspects of the discipline. The sources used are mainly printed papers and archives from the French Handball Federation and an association named Leg’Hand, which aim is to collect everything about handball to open a museum of this sport. The national press and sports newspapers have also been read. Besides, this research relays on semi-directed interviews with some of the main actors of the diffusion of handball. The first results point out two ways handball spread in France in the interwar period: the workers’ sport – mainly developed in Alsace – and the Parisian physical education where teachers had a key role in the introduction of the game. Even if workers’ sport seems to be the first canal through which handball was introduced in France, both models then grew independently at the same time but on different scales: the workers’ sport in the Rhine Valley and the school sport in several French regions especially around Paris.

