Moral Geography

Moral geography is the subdiscipline of geography concerned with the relationship between morality and space. A primary concern of moral geographers has been the relationship between morality and distance, often referred to as “the problem of distant strangers.” Theories of care account for moral motivation, which they find in the concrete relationships and experiences of more-than-rational and thoroughly social persons. Proceeding from this, however, some theories imply that care favors situations of social and geographical proximity, such as the intimate home life of mother and child. Moral geographers have sought a route out of this fix by exploring ways to extend care across space. They have suggested that care might be institutionalized (after Tronto 1993). And they have promoted a relational ontology (after Robinson 1999), through which people might recognize the diverse relationships that make and support them, and the great spatial extent of these relationships.

It is in the project of extending care across space that moral geography meets consumer culture. Some geographers have concerned themselves with the welfare of producers in global commodity chains (e.g., Harvey 1990). They have worried that such welfare is obscured from the view of consumers by the fetish of the commodity and the distance spanned by contemporary commodity chains. They have sought to make consumers more aware of labor or environmental conditions at the other end of these chains through commodity chain analysis (e.g., Hughes and Reimer 2004). By providing consumers with geographical knowledge, they have sought to influence consumer behavior. The hope has been that, in turn, consumer behavior—whether through boycotts or buycotts—will influence the behavior of production managers.

This approach, however, rests on a conception of consumers as autonomous and rational choosers. But a number of studies in geography and related disciplines have found consumers to be unrecognizable from this conception. Consumption practices tend to be directed toward the needs, desires, and concerns of others (Miller 1998). They tend to unfold against a background of already existing, multiple, and contradictory obligations and expectations. In addition, consumption practices tend to be habitual and routine at least as often as they are particularly conscious and deliberative (Groncow and Warde 2001).

[Page 998]Social movement organizations interested in extending care across space through ethical consumption seem to share this more sophisticated understanding of consumption practices. They tend to approach potential supporters not as egoistical consumers but as members of social networks centered on sites and institutions such as schools and churches (Clarke et al. 2007). Rather than simply providing information to people and exhorting them to act, these organizations tend to pursue change in consumer behavior along two avenues. The first leads organizations to provide people with narrative story lines that acknowledge the complexities of modern life but connect them to themes of inequality and exploitation (Littler 2005). The second avenue leads organizations to provide people with devices that make acting differently practicable. Such devices include organic vegetable boxes and fair trade products. Along this avenue, social movement organizations can be found lobbying the procurement officers of public authorities and the buyers of private retailers attempting to ensure that all products available in their canteens and shops are “ethical” in some way or another and that consumer choice is removed from the equation (Malpass et al. 2007). It is at this point that moral geography and consumer culture begin to part company, as moral geographers turn their attention to the relationship between campaigners, retailers, and regulators. This separation is not entirely clean, however, since campaigns tend to feed off and work through media attention, and in turn, media attention can be secured in contemporary society through sales figures of “ethical” products and the figure of the “ethical consumer” (Clarke et al. 2006).

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