Ethics, Geography and

Early definitions of ethics within geography focused on ethics as a means of distinguishing between good and bad and between right and wrong. Later definitions focused on ethics as the study of morality and of making moral judgments. This shift from prescriptive to relational definitions reflects the influence of the cultural turn within geography. Although the emphasis has changed, the definitions share a common core. This is an understanding of ethics as the evaluation of human conduct. The conceptualization of ethics within geography works in a range of ways—in broad theoretical debates about the relationship between geography and ethics and in debates about geography as a discipline and about individual behavior and choices.

Broad theoretical debates about the relationship between geography and ethics tend to focus on concepts such as space, place, nature, environment, development, and technology. With this focus, the emphasis is on the ways in which ethics and geography intersect in addressing these concepts and concerns. Some geographers are interested in the ontological basis of the intersection. In this context, a concern with ontology—theories of being—suggests that we consider ways of constructing and maintaining ethical relationships with ourselves, with others, with places, and with environments. Other geographers are interested in the epistemological basis of this intersection. In this context, a concern with epistemology—theories of[Page 138] knowing—suggests the need to develop ethical ways of knowing about ourselves, others, places, and environments. A range of different theoretical approaches are used to consider these questions, including realism, relativism, and (most recently) poststructuralism. The distinctions between ontology and epistemology, however, are not always clear. From the perspective of geographers concerned with questions of ethics, ontology and epistemology often are considered as interdependent. Thus, these broad theoretical debates have been operationalized through two main arenas. The first is in relation to the discipline of geography, and the second is in relation to the ethical behavior of individual geographers.

In considering the discipline of geography, two strands of inquiry are apparent. The first relates to the place of ethics in geography, and the second relates to the place of geography in ethics. Early attempts to consider the place of ethics in geography were instigated during the 1960s and 1970s. These included the work of Marxist and humanist geographers concerned with issues of social relevance, social justice, and values in geography. These concerns have continued to be of importance to geographers interested in issues of ethics, but the range of concerns has since expanded. During recent times, there has been particular interest in issues of development ethics and environmental ethics, and there is an emerging concern with the ethics of the relationship between human and nonhuman entities. The increasing significance of considerations of environmental ethics is illustrated by the establishment in 1998 of Ethics, Place and Environment, a journal devoted to the study of geographic and environmental ethics. In considering the place of geography in ethics, there has been a particular emphasis on what has been termed descriptive ethics. This refers to detailed descriptions of the ways in which the relationships between people and places construct, reinforce, or challenge ethical (or unethical) beliefs and practices. This set of relationships often is described as a moral geography and often is concerned with identifying the right and wrong places for particular kinds of actions. Both strands of inquiry tend to have normative aspects, particularly in relation to the ethics of spatial and social inequalities and injustices and in relation to their identification and amelioration.

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