A geography for the common good

The notion of the common good underlies much policy making in geography. There are two reasons for evaluating geography’s impact on the common good for the university curriculum. First, by working within the various theoretical paradigms that have influenced policy, students will learn to argue from different perspectives such as social democracy or neo-liberalism. Second, asking them to assess the effectiveness of policies in meeting the common good, produces employable graduates with skills in critical thinking and problem solving. This is especially true because the concept is often not fully developed and varies with each perspective. Initially students undertake a case study of an area that allows them to follow the logic of intervention during all its historical twists and turns. A further stage sees students arguing not just within but between different theoretical frameworks, comparing the various approaches in order to discover the most appropriate one for understanding the processes in the locality and for pursuing the common good. In the final stage students investigate the politics of knowledge, again using data from the same locality, looking at how the knowledge used in geographic policy making becomes an agent of socio-economic change through being absorbed by society’s dominant paradigm.