Data innovations on protests in the United States

Abstract

For decades, the United States has been generally excluded from cross-national quantitative datasets on the study of collective action and political resistance. More recently, however, new data collection efforts are on the rise. These projects specifically focus on gathering granular level information about street protests and mobilizations in the United States. In this article, we conduct a rigorous exploratory data analysis of three contemporary protest datasets. These data collect information about the when, where and how of contentious politics in the United States. Our thorough data review first summarizes the key similarities and differences across the datasets. Next, we review the regional, temporal and methodological strengths and weaknesses of each dataset both individually and in contrast to one another. Last, we examine potential research applications of these data by demonstrating what these data reveal about the risks of protesting in these types of events. We conclude by offering recommendations for data use and future data collection strategies for the study of collective action.

When Black Movements Matter: Controlling Images and Black Lives Matter Protests in Media Attention to U.S. Police Killings

“…U.S. minority-led movements mobilize in largely white cultural contexts (Bracey 2016;Morris 2019) and must align their claims with the cultural and moral values of white audiences, journalists, and decision makers (Oliver 2017;Snow and Benford 1988). Liberal and conservative audiences are more likely to associate Black protesters with violence (Nicholson and Valentino 2021), and U.S. antiracist protests compared to others are more likely to see police arrest and deploy chemical agents against protesters (Dorff, Adcox, and Konet 2023). Media coverage of ethnoracial minorities typically ignores disproportionate impacts, decenter structural problems of racism, and frame social problems through poverty, criminality, and social irresponsibility (Carlson 2016;Gilens 1996;Jacobs 2000).…”

Guest Editors’ introduction: Nonviolent resistance and its discontents

“…Our contributions feature a wide range of methodological and empirical approaches, demonstrating the pluralistic approaches to these topics that have emerged in recent years. Among the contributions, we see the use of novel datasets (Dahlum, 2023; Kang, 2023; Nilsson & Svensson, 2023; Shay, 2023), qualitative process tracing (Clarke, 2023), observational data analysis (Cunningham, 2023; Dorff, Adcox & Konet, 2023; Turner, 2023), field surveys (Croco, Cunningham & Vincent, 2023; Grewal, Kilavuz & Kubinec, 2023) and mixed methodologies (Sombatpoonsiri, 2023). Methodological pluralism leads to more generalizable findings and greater engagement with a broader research and policy community.…”