The face of the other

Zapatismo, responsibility and the ethics of deconstruction

Bibliographic Data

ID3166267
AuthorsE Jeffrey Popke (East Carolina University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume5
Issue2
Pages301-317
Publication date2004-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649360410001690277
OpenAlexW2084585941
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited48

Recent work has highlighted the importance of moral and ethical issues for geographical inquiries of space and place. Much of this work has been couched in a modernist framework, drawing on universalist conceptions of subjectivity and legal rights in an attempt to ground the normative foundations for ethical conduct. In this paper, I draw upon post‐structuralist theory to elaborate an alternative approach to spatial ethics. Drawing on the work of Emmanuel Levinas, I outline a theory of subjectivity that would view our relationship to distant others as a form of unconditional responsibility. Our ability to meet this responsibility, I suggest, is dependent upon a deconstructionist ethics which, in recognizing the impossibility of grounding ethical conduct, expands the horizon of political engagement. In the second half of the paper, I interpret the Zapatista movement in Mexico as an example of such an ethics. Through an examination of the writings of Subcomandante Marcos, I argue that the Zapatistas have articulated a new form of ethical and political engagement, one that transcends the boundaries of space and identity, and invokes an unconditional responsibility

Aesthetics · Deconstruction (building · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ethics of technology · Face (sociological concept · Identity (music · Impossibility · Information ethics · Meta-ethics · Moral responsibility · Normative · Normative ethics · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Philosophy · Water Governance and Infrastructure

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub