Space, place, scale and context: A conceptual foundation to a geographical framework for the study of terrorism

The four concepts of space, place, scale, and context are used to evaluate and review the Fall/Winter 2006 special edition of The Pennsylvania Geographer on geography and terrorism. I selected these concepts because they are fundamental to the discipline and often inform the work of its practitioners; it is the hope that this review will contribute to continued development of geographical theories of terrorism. Space as process has generally not been explicitly engaged within geographical research (though this situation is changing); this situation is mirrored in the works reviewed here. The concept of place is only minimally engaged despite its recent theorization as integral to understanding the power of terrorism. The author provide a roadmap for thinking about scale in terrorism studies, intimating the role of globalized interconnections, governmental and societal responses, and micro-geographies. Finally, context, the locally operating but globally connected structures and processes that shape daily activities for people in space and place, is engaged through study of political institutions, social networks, and access to resources that facilitate mitigation.