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Protest event data analysis: Addressing cross-national comparative questions using country-specific event data sets

Fri, May 25, 12:30 to 2:00pm, TBA

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Abstract

The use of “event data”—data sets of political and social events usually compiled from news media sources—has become increasingly popular in the study of contentious politics and social movements. Country-specific event data are generally richer and more detailed than cross-national ones but are not easily comparable among themselves because each data set is collected for different purposes using different procedures. What are the potentials and limitations of using country-specific data sets in order to ask cross-national comparative questions?

In this workshop, practitioners of event data analysis will address common themes concerning the relationship between neoliberalism and popular politics in Latin America. The themes will include:

1) Changes in patterns related to the actors who participate in protests (i.e. “Are there fewer union workers compared to other new types of actor?”)
2) Changes in patterns related to the types of protests (i.e. “Are there fewer strikes compared to other types of protests such as roadblocks?”).
3) Changes related to the geographical distribution of protests (i.e. “Do more protests occur in urban area than in rural area?”)

Using their own data sets on Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru, they will discuss pros and cons of such cross-national comparisons.

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