Geography, Community, and Morality

Recognition of a moral turn in geography leads to the suggestion that looking at ‘community’ through a moral lens reveals some important issues at the interface of geography and moral philosophy. The notion of community is usually associated with social ties and interaction within a locality, but it also has a normative interpretation. Communitarianism as an expression of the good of community is experiencing a revival: the author reviews the content of communitarianism, observing similarities with the ethic of care which has featured in some feminist critiques of mainstream moral philosophy. However, the ideal of community and the partiality of care are open to critique, which requires a rethinking of community in the context of the changing nature of personal relationships and of localities. This has implications for moral learning and development, or how behavioural norms are transmitted and possibly transformed.