Ethnic Collective Action in Contemporary Urban U.S. - Data on Conflicts and Protests

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by olzak | Thu, 10/15/2009 - 3:59pm
Abstract: 

This project seeks to identify sources of ethnic and racial conflict and protest in urban America from 1954 through 1992. The data on collective events are coded using the New York Times. Detailed coding rules produced a chronological data set that allows researchers to:

  1. Analyze the location and timing of both conflicts (confrontations between two or more ethnic populations) and protests (marches, mass meetings, demonstrations on behalf of one ethnic group, expressing grievances related to discrimination or racial policy).
  2. Specifically analyze a type of protest (e.g., Civil Rights Movement activity, or urban race riots) and the potential dynamic relationship of different types of protests and conflicts.
  3. Identify any ethnic, nationality, or racial characteristics of participants who were the targets and/or instigators of each protest and conflict.
  4. Analyze information on each event’s location, size, targets, police presence, arrests, damage or injuries, and the content of claims directed against government authorizes, police, and other groups are included in these data.
Principal Investigator: 
Susan Olzak
Funding Agency: 
National Science Foundation, Sociology Program (SES-9196229)
Bibliographic Citation: 

Olzak, Susan, and Elizabeth West. 1995. Ethnic Collective Action in Contemporary Urban U.S. from 1954 to 1992. Stanford, CA: Department of Sociology, Stanford University

Contact Email: 
olzak@stanford.edu
Introduction: 

This dataset is freely available to users who register with SSDS/Stanford Libraries.

Acknowledgements: 

I acknowledge core funding support from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Sociology Program (SES-9196229).

Methodology/Sampling
Universe: 
The universe of this study encompasses all ethnic and racial protest and conflict events taking place between 1954-1992 within urban areas in the United States, as reported daily in the New York Times.
Unit of Analysis: 
Individual ethnic and racial protest and conflict events
Type of data collection: 
Event data
Time span: 
The range of years for the events making up the dataset is 1954-1992
Time of data collection: 
The data were collected between 1991 to 1995
Geographic coverage: 
Urban areas in the United States
Smallest geographic unit: 
This dataset does not have geographic units of analysis, but all events took place in Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA), in the United States
Sample description: 

See the Project Description and Coding Manual for full information on how possible events were located using the New York Times Index (link provided below under "Web Site or Document Download Link(s)").

Sample response rate: 
Data were collected from the New York Times Index and daily microfilms
Documentation
Document file(s): 
application/pdf iconProject Description and Coding Manual - Revised July 24, 2007 (pdf file)
application/pdf iconOlzak Bibliography of Articles (pdf file)
Data Download Link(s)
Click on a data file link to begin download of the compressed (zip) file of the original formatted data file (e.g., Stata:dta, SPSS portable:por, SAS export:xpt).
Data file link(s) will appear after you login: 

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