Geography and ethics III: Description as a matter of moral concern

Abstract

This report focuses on moral description. It considers how comparative practices often entangle moral geography in philosophical dilemmas, such as debates over moral relativism. Using examples from geographic work on language, algorithms, the appropriation of anti-colonial critique, and Indigenous data sovereignty, the report shows how and why descriptive praxis matters to accounts of moral geography. As the final installation of a three-part series of reports on ethics and geography, it draws together a broader critique of moral geography's initial distinctions and suggests a more constitutive view of ethics for geographic scholarship.