Abstract
Within human geography, terrorism has been researched with an eye toward problem definition, investigating the spatiality of state and nonstate terrorist violence and unpacking the discourses surrounding terror, terrorists, and terrorism. In terms of problem definition, from a geographical perspective, terrorism is an act of violence directed toward place destruction and/or place alienation, and a spectacle directed toward a wider audience than the immediate victims. Processes of globalization, geographies of perceived injustices, and geographical imaginaries of the terrorists influence the spatiality of terrorism. There is indeed evidence for a correspondence between terrorists’ geographical imaginaries and the geographies of injustice and terrorists’ target selection. Geographers have sought to unpack the multiplicity of discourses surrounding terrorism – from critical geopolitics, political ecological, historical, and post-structuralist perspectives. Discourse analyses of terrorism have sought to highlight how demonized others are produced and spaces of terror are conceptualized at the nation-state scale by those in power to justify wars against other states and governments. Attention to the processes producing spaces of justice and injustice, spatial imaginaries, and cultural fundamentalisms may yet be the greatest contribution of human geography to not just counter terrorism but securing a just and peaceful world.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | International Encyclopedia of Human Geography |
| Subtitle of host publication | Volume 1-12 |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Pages | V11-209-V11-214 |
| Volume | 1-12 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780080449104 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2009 |
Keywords
- Al-Qaeda
- Critical geopolitics
- Discourse
- Geography
- Place alienation
- Place destruction
- Political ecology
- Post-structuralism
- Spatial imaginaries
- Spatiality
- State terror
- Terrorism
