Evaluating Justice: Toward A Methodological Framework for Geographic Research

Geographers have long addressed the spatial dynamics of injustice, examining how various processes shape inequitable geographies. Despite extensive research by geographers into the causes of injustice, however, there is a notable absence of specific analyses of its opposite, justice, by geographers, as intuitive assessments of justness tend to take priority over more robust analytical frameworks. In an effort to address this lacuna, this article introduces a methodological framework and toolkit aimed at more comprehensively evaluating justice within geographic and geography-adjacent research. Through a three-step process—describing geographical conditions of injustice, relating these descriptions to justice theories, and normatively evaluating the qualities of justice and injustice—the methodology facilitates a deeper understanding of justice in geographical contexts. Our intention behind this framework is to encourage scholars to critically assess justice and injustice as a dialectic within their research foci, and in doing so, more effectively assert the relative justness of a given set of geographical circumstances.