Mapping Morality: Visible and Invisible Geographies

Abstract

Issues related to morality have been discussed in the geography literature off and on for the past fifty years. Since morality deals with correctness—right vs. wrong, good vs. bad, or correct vs. incorrect—it is not difficult to understand how these value labels also exist in geography contexts. The geography literature often deals with morality questions in a light or superficial way which leaves geographers and others wondering if there are more value questions we might address in studying human actions and behavior. Three major foci are addressed in this discussion. The first is to explore moral questions geographers might address when looking at cultural behavior, economic development, social policies, allocation of resources, environmental understanding and interpretation of places and landscapes. The second focus is on mapping moralities, including examples of maps that display visible and invisible geographies about moral places and spaces. The third discusses how this moral thread is worthy of further study in many fields of human and human/environmental geography. A greater understanding these threads will strengthen our understanding and appreciation of “why things are the way they are” but also “why we make decisions that we do” at local and global scales.

Keywords

• morality
• ethics
• disciplinary history
• silences