Ethics and Politics

Question 1

Textbook ethics

Answer 1

Avoid harm to participants
Informed consent
Avoid deception

Question 2

Ethics - power vs. duty (& Spinoza) (?;?)

Answer 2

Deleuze 1978
Ethics is a problem of power, not duty - not what we must do but what we are capable of
Spinozan ethics: We aren’t fully aware of what the body is capable; ethics a striving to increase affective capacities = the ability to affect and be affected
Ethics of the encounter

Question 3

Performing diverse economies (?;?)

Answer 3

Gibson-Graham 2008
Beyond critique - experiment with different practices of world-making
Capitalism = performative practices — how might we perform economies differently
Trained to be critical - closes down experimentation
Community economies = performing other economies
Performative ontological project that draws forth a different kind of academic practice and subjectivity

Question 4

Policy-centric geography and situated research (?;?)

Answer 4

Jensen and Glasmeier 2010
Calls for more policy-centric research
- BUT not about a pre-specified problem working within existing interpretations; one that seeks to inform and redefine understanding of the problem
= researcher an active agent in defining and shaping the policy research inquiry
Conscious of social situatedness
- your perspective, positionality related to the problem
^ provides new insight and allows you to define and shape it –> be explicit

Question 5

Affect and ethics (?;?)

Answer 5

Thrift 2003
The ethics of encounters
Cultivate good judgement through affective techniques - body and mind (body = intuition)
Ethics = practice of ‘situated judgement’

Question 6

Emotional geographies and policy relevance (?;?)

Answer 6

Horton and Kraftl 2009
Re. Sure Start Centre = deprived neighbourhood’s children’s well-being
Policies always emotional
= policy relevant research needs to be more careful of this; commonly distinction between policy relevant research and theoretical work on emotion and affect
different view of ‘what matters’
Method = interviews with groups of 1-4 parents/carers at a time depending on their preference around coffee table in quiet side room of the centre