Concepts of Equity, Fairness and Justice in Geographical Studies

Abstract

Notions of equity, fairness and justice frequently appear in geographical writing. It may be argued that eight distinct concepts underlie this usage, all of which are relevant to the study of geographical distributions. Such applications introduce complications in terms of measurement (due to problems of geographical data-collection units and ecological correlations). The common geographical operationalization of spatial equality, territorial justice and minimum standards can be related to the underlying concepts. Differences in the use of the concepts may also be an element in regional description and comparison.