From Code to Conduct. Professional Ethics in New Zealand Geography

There has been a major resurgence of interest in ethical matters among geographers during the past 3–4 years, both in New Zealand and internationally. This paper outlines some of the important arguments for behaving ethically in geographical research. It then argues that, rather than adopting a Code of Ethics in isolation, serious consideration needs to be given to the business of teaching ethics. The paper proposes a two-part teaching-and-learning strategy - the first part provides students with written and lecture material on ethics, and the second section presents real life case studies of ethical dilemmas confronted by geographers, which are used for detailed discussion in tutorial meetings.