Summer Quantitative Reasoning Institute - Power in Numbers: The Science of Protest and Revolution

How and why do ordinary people unite, act collectively, take to the streets, and win popular struggles against unjust governments? Students in this section will investigate the mathematics underlying protest and revolution. We will model protest cascades, examine the role of social networks–online and off–in spreading protest, study survey data to understand the motivations and behaviors of protesters, and learn how game theory can help us understand bargaining between protesters and governments. We will also think critically about the difficulties of collecting events and survey data about protest and revolution, and consider how to recognize biases in protest data and news coverage. Students will gain an invaluable quantitative toolset for understanding not just protest but all manner of political phenomena. Potential Research: Students in this section will work in groups to answer a research question of their choice using events data from the Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Outcomes (NAVCO) project.