Geography and Ethics
Over recent decades there has been a heightened awareness of the importance of ethics in scholarly research and professional practice, not just in geography but across all disciplines.
In seeking to enhance the positive impacts of research, teaching, and service undertaken by geographers, the AAG has been engaged in various discussions and initiatives on ethical issues. These often take geographers into an interdisciplinary arena.
Statement on Professional Ethics
In 2021, AAG updated this document under the leadership of Emily Yeh, Richard Kujawa, Sue Roberts, Reuben Rose-Redwood, and Eric Sheppard.
Efforts at AAG
In 2020, AAG launched a collaborative initiative to address the pressing need for research and guidance on ethical practice with geolocational data—the GeoEthics Initiative. Since then, we have worked with our partners to support the development of a common awareness and understanding of the extent of ethical concerns, within or beyond the geographical community, to generate new connections among a wide range of stakeholders including academic scholars, educators, certifying bodies, GIS (geographic information systems) professionals, spatial data scientists, and students across the increased breadth of disciplines that use locational information.
Summer Series on questions of Geoethics and Human Rights highlighted by COVID-19 Conditions
Summer Series on questions of Geoethics and Human Rights highlighted by COVID-19 Conditions
Panel organizers reflected on the ethical and human rights costs of advancing science in times of immediacy, such as COVID-19, when personal geographical data are abundant.
Locational Information and the Public Interest
Locational Information and the Public Interest
AAG worked with its partners on a two-year initiative, to develop a multi-faceted webinar series and articles and papers on the issues, questions, and imperatives on the Locational Information and the Public Interest. The series culminated in an in-person summit in June 2022 in Santa Barbara, California, which brought diverse experts together and produced several resources including a white paper, and a quick-start guide for educators to incorporate ethics into their curriculum.
Ethical Geographic Science in Rapid Research
Ethical Geographic Science in Rapid Research
In October 2020, AAG held a Participatory Forum on New Requirements for Ethical Geographic Science in Rapid Research.
AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition
AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition
For more than a decade, AAG has been a founding partner in the AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition, AAG has led discussions and participated in focused inquiry on issues such as the Right to Science, climate change and human rights, and the use of geolocational data for humanitarian purposes. In 2020, we worked with AAAS to cosponsor a multi-part series of sessions at our annual meeting, addressing the crisis of COVID-19 research from a variety of subspecialty perspectives from economics to medical geography to more-than-human and ecological geography.
Past Initiatives
AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition — For more than a decade, AAG has partnered with AAAS to lead discussions and participate in focused inquiry on issues such as the Right to Science, climate change and human rights, and the use of geolocational data for humanitarian purposes, and addressing the crisis of COVID-19 research. Learn more
Geospatial Data Confidentiality — The AAG has engaged in an NSF-funded research project looking at the long-standing problems of sharing geospatial data and their visualizations. This includes the ethical issues of protecting the locational privacy and confidentiality of subjects in research using geo-referenced data. Learn more
Graduate Ethics Seminars for Future Geospatial Technology Professionals — The AAG was involved in this initiative funded by the NSF Ethics Education in Science and Engineering program. In collaboration with colleagues from Penn State, Oregon State, and the University of Minnesota, The aim was to develop a model curriculum for graduate seminars that would lead students to recognize and anticipate ethical issues posed by applications of geospatial technologies. Read an article from the AAG Newsletter about the initiative (May 2008, p. 1 & 8). Learn more
Get Involved
AAG’s Ethics, Justice, and Human Rights Specialty Group encourages inclusive and informed discussion throughout the discipline on normative concerns including applied, theoretical, and professional. In equal measure and in combination, to sustain an interest in, and teaching/research on, human rights issues at all scales of analysis, in all parts of the world. Learn more