4 page essay

Moral Regulation Shaping Space and Landscape

In the human society, we are all forced to conform in a behaviour that fits the day-to-day living of a space. Around the world people are accustomed to different qualities of life and use their space in different type of ways. A social hierarchy that found their way to regulate a society morally without interfering the law that is written by the government usually conducts this way of living. Historical geographers find “moral regulation” as a more complex concept where it connects with branches from cultures, landscape, and importantly space. Moral regulations are not written down and set in stone but more as behaviour of continuity to stay relevant in the space that we are in. There are moral regulations that would be created but can never solve but that does not equip to the pros it comes with these moral regulations. The people that are colonizing the space are the ones that put forth the moral regulations. This help shapes space as they bring on characteristics and attributes to create a society that is well and suitably functional.

The importance of moral regulation stems from the scopes of government institutions against “government to self” (Hunt, 1). Not everything that comes to mind, which contributes to the makeup of a space, can be written down. This is where the colonizers who create these moral regulations gain power by keeping together a social control. These regulations are more in the favour of the colonizers as it is their decision to put forth moral rules which is in their best interest. It creates an identity and image for a space where there are distinctive differences which makes that society known for their differences. An example of this would be a society that is dominated by a religious group in contrast to another society not dominated by any religious groups. The circumstances of control would be around religious concepts and not outside what they feel is “normal”. Everyone always wants to have the feeling of power and dominance. For the colonizers, it is their chance when they have it in their hands, to set precedence on how there society will emerge. As it is more of a social action, it helps create cultural transformations that may create trends for other societies to build on a foundation that is laid out. With government laws always infringing on how humans want to behave, it only allows the colonizers to set moral regulations to a certain extent. As long as there is power within a social group, there will always be the followers of the regulations that is set and is what creates a personality/image of a space.

There are misconceptions about moral regulations on how it only controls the society to conduct how life should be, but it is more as a specific aim to change an identity in a positive way; through education, propaganda and enlightenment (Ruonavaara, 289). This creates a culture of positivity through its landscape that entails the people to live life “morally” without refusing what is written down in government laws. Having moral regulations creates a foundation for social hierarchies as it can be intertwined with culture and economic scales. As being the regulator, they do not have to be economically stabled to set regulations for others to follow. Instead, it can be vice versa as being culturally/morally rich can still meet goals of having social control. It does not take only the financially wealthy people to gain power to set moral regulations but socially inclined people are just as equal on setting moral regulations as it is a way of shaping space differently.

Having regulations set as a moral interest from colonizers are big unwritten laws that have shaped many institutions and societies in this present day. Moral regulations is also connected with etiquette which is a way of living that does not usually need to be explained but more known from oneself. (Example: chewing food and not leaving your mouth open). Throughout time, Toronto has went through many moral regulation changes as there were many different ethnic groups which ways of living had to be altered to cater to everyone. Many moral regulations were set as time went on for many various things. Boys were mandatory of swimming in pools naked until after the 1950s when regulations have changed and clothing must be worn to swim. Another large regulation that shaped one of Toronto’s bigger institutions was the Toronto Public Library. Opened to the public for them to have access to information from books, magazines, poetry, etc. But there were many rules that had to be modified overtime where there were social differences from gender, ethnicity and financial factors that negated a lot of people. The TPL (Toronto Public Library) tended to favour males in magazines and newspapers, also take over a lot of the rooms that were situated in the libraries where it did not give women a lot of opportunities to get access to the library. Changes had to be made that was “morally” correct and allow the space to be used equally which the landscape is for everyone. There were moral deficiencies as lack of equality was present in the times where society was still in the shaping process. It has been a moral revolution which shaped many western societies and still today there are regulations that cannot be fixed which was put in place from historical times.

Moral Regulations have a really big impact on shaping a landscape and space, as it is a starter for regulators to make a society conform to their normal traditions. Geographers were able to connect the concepts of why moral regulations have played big roles on cultures of societies and why people function the way they do in certain societies. ‘Moral codes geographically emerge relative to: the conditions and temptations of the communities or anonymities of their cities; the obligations and geographical imaginaries of their empires’ (Brown and Legg, 135). With the ‘moral project’ being a system that constitutes the regulators to commit to a long-term ideal of living towards the ones being regulated (Ruonavaara, 289). Usually the ones that are regulated do not have the complete understanding why certain moral regulations are put in place because usually they are already conformed to its regulation, which they are not aware of or either feel its suitable and that is why moral regulations have really help create identities for spaces that need a meaning for their landscape.

We as a society are the many people that conformed to what this Western society has offered and are somewhat called “underdogs” which the only way for us to change anything is through the strength of power. As the western society may be different for many people around the world, it can be said vice versa and moral regulations are what really influences the images of how landscapes are viewed as and were major steps in shaping space socially. Toronto is a great example of how moral regulations have shaped this city and continues to build on to shape this space in the best possible way.

Work Cited

Stephen Legg, Michael Brown (2013) "Moral regulation: historical geography and scale" Journal of Historical Geography October 2013, Volume42 (Issue12)

Hunt, Alan. “Governing Morals, A Social History of Moral Regulation”. Cambridge University. Print. 1999.

Ruonavaara, Hannu. “Moral Regulation: A Reformulation*. University of Turku. Print.