Geography and ethics—the new activism??

As an academic I’m only too aware that many people think of academia as an ivory tower with little practical application. All theory and no cattle, so to speak.

Adena has mentioned that from her perspective the AAG is “staying the course as an academic organization.”

So there’s an interesting article by Gill Valentine in Progress in Human Geography on how geography can be more socially and politically committed. Valentine asks if geographers have paid too much attention to theory and getting the next article out. Are we disengaged theorists?

If so, what to do? Valentine sees this as a matter of ethics, that is, it is only ethical to get stuck in and get involved, or in a phrase she likes “living ethically and acting politically.”

If she’s to be believed then, the answer to all this is that geographers act more politically, either in the classroom by bringing political issues to the fore, or by being socially and politically involved (eg., in policy issues).

Does this sound reasonable?

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