What is possible would never have been achieved if...
people had not repeatedly reached for the impossible.
- Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation, 1921.
My roots in public policy lay in ethics and geography. Like policy itself, both are interdisciplinary traditions of scholarship, and thus draw on a wide range of theories, methods and topics. As importantly, they predate the settled divisions of the academy into disciplines and professions, and thereby intrigue yet confound people.
So in a world of narrowing disciplinary specialization, I often find myself explaining what ethics and geography mean, what in the world they have to do with one another, and how they converge in my policy work. Here it is in a nutshell.
I am fundamentally interested in ethics and public policy, with an emphasis on environmental discourse and participatory governance. Ethics critically examines and envisions 'how we ought to live' with people, animals and nature. Geography emphasizes humanity's role in shaping the face of the earth. Together, ethics and geography help me triangulate on the ethical norms that shape our policies about the environment. It is from this foundation that I have been consulting, researching and teaching on the moral dimensions of policy issues for over a decade.
My approach to scholarship is interpretive. This takes concrete form through practical ethics, critical hermeneutics, qualitative research and interpretive policy analysis. This work is unapologetically theoretical with a hard empirical edge. On the theory side, I seek to clarify ambiguities and disclose new possibilities for how we understand our moral responsibilities. On the empirical side, I deploy theoretical insights to promote policy dialogue on, and solutions to, the pressing environmental problems of our time.
Finally, I am a strong advocate for both situated knowledge and interdisciplinarity. I welcome a diversity of theories, methods and concerns to the policy table. The multiple voices that arise out of this diversity are not inchoate, but rich and efficient. They generate a plurality of insights, enabling us to triangulate on progressively deeper and better accounts of our world. Note that I am not defending ethical or scientific relativism. Quite the opposite. I advocate an ethics-laden approach to both the natural and human sciences as indispensable to advancing knowledge and the public good.
Image: Atka (Canis lupus arctos) and Bill (Homo sapiens moralis), 2000, courtesy of J. Henry Fair, www.jhenryfair.com
Wolves are a signature aspect of my work. They are good to think with, and can teach us much about human-animal relations, environmental sustainability, and the role of ethics in public policy.