A/Im/Moral Geographies: Zoning, Infrastructure, Extraction

Using the framework of moral geographies, this roundtable excavates religion’s role in the legal, infrastructural, economic, and environmental systems that produce space. Examining spatial apparatuses that govern the organization, inhabitation, and exploitation of land—including religion, zoning, infrastructure, and resource extraction—this roundtable proposes moral geography as an analytical framework to theorize the religious productions of the built environment in North America and the Pacific. Through seven case studies, the panelists will discuss the racialized religious imaginaries that shape how zoning law categorizes space and authorizes the policing of communities deemed “out of place”; how infrastructural projects across North America and US territories draw upon religious frameworks to justify spatial clearing and ecological exploitation; and how oil and other natural resources take on a religious significance within extractive economies.