Moral Geographies: Ethics in a World of Difference

David M. Smith

Preface

1) Introduction: Geography, Morality and Ethics

Moral values in geography

Ethics, morality and moral philosophy

The significance of difference

The approach

2) The Historical Geography of Morality and Ethics

The significance of context

An outline historical geography

Moral differences and similarities

3) Landscape, Location and Place: Moral Order

Moral readings of landscape, location and place

The moral geography of the industrial city

A moral geography of absence: the Lodz ghetto

4) Proximity: Locality and Community

Locality and partiality

Community and morality

An ethic of care

Limitations of locality, community and partiality

A premodern community: the shtetl

5) Distance: The Scope of Beneficence

Reconstituting community

Extending the scope of care

Combining the ethics of care and justice

The contextual experience of moral learning

A moral geography of genocide and rescue: the Holocaust

6) Space and Territory: Who Should be Where

Inclusion and exclusion

Claims to territory: promised land?

Multiculturalism and minority rights

Contesting local space: whose Jerusalem?

7) Distribution: Territorial Social Justice

Distribution and difference

The place of good fortune

Human sameness, needs and rights

Social justice

Universality and particularity

8) Development: Ethical Perspectives

Introducing development ethics

Development after apartheid

Alternative development ethics: a new South Africa?

9) Nature: Environmental Ethics

Introducing environmental ethics

Environmental equity and justice

Sustainable development

Community, care and the future

10) Conclusion: Towards Geographically Sensitive Ethics

A world of difference

Context-sensitive moral knowledge

Towards a better world

On moral motivation

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

David M. Smith is professor of geography, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

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