Week 2: Event data
Event data can take on a wide variety of different forms. This week, we will be reading several articles that each use one or other of these types of data. Events, as you will see, are very broadly defined. In the paper by Bove and Gokmen (2017), events take the form of international conflict events; in the article by Mazur (2019) they are protest events in the early stages of the Syrian Revolution. What is common across these literatures is a concern to explain systematically the occurrence of discrete events in time. Each of the papers has been selected to give you a flavour of what forms event data might take, as well as the potential benefits and pitfalls of their collection and use.
The article by Mazur (2019) details the sources and techniques used for collecting event data, as well as the possible biases introduced by the use of these sources. The paper by Earl et al. (2004) tackles questions related to the use of newspapers for studying collective action phenomena, while that by Baum and Zhukov (2015) engages a similar topic but asks questions specifically of the use of newspapers in non-democratic contexts.
The paper by Bove and Gokmen (2017) takes up a question that has received outsized attention in Middle East studies: the clash of civilizations theory first proposed by Samuel P. Huntington in a Foreign Affairs article here. This will give us the opportunity to engage questions of measurement validity in relation not only to the culture but also to conflict generally—questions taken up in the general readings by Kalyvas (2003), Wedeen (2002), and Adcock and Collier (2001). For those interested, you’ll also find references to a back-and-forth between Huntington and the authors of a previous test of his conjecture listed in the further case studies (Huntington 2000; Oneal and Russett 2000; Russett, Oneal, and Cox 2000).
Questions to consider in the seminar: What issues need to be considered when categorizing events into discrete categories? What constitutes a valid sample from which to make population-based inferences? Are newspapers valid sources of data? Is information bias particularly acute in non-democracies? Can we accurately measure contentious and disruptive political phenomena (war, conflict, protest)? Can we measure culture?
Required reading:
General reading:
Additional case studies reading:
References
Adcock, Robert, and David Collier. 2001. “Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research.” American Political Science Review 95 (3): 529–46.
Baum, Matthew A., and Yuri M. Zhukov. 2015. “Filtering Revolution: Reporting Bias in International Newspaper Coverage of the Libyan Civil War.” Journal of Peace Research 52 (3): 384–400.
Bove, Vincenzo, and Gunes Gokmen. 2017. “Cultural Distance and Interstate Conflicts.” British Journal of Political Science 47 (4): 939–49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123415000551.
Chiozza, Giacomo. 2002. “Is There a Clash of Civilizations? Evidence from Patterns of International Conflict Involvement, 1946-97.” Journal of Peace Research 39 (6): 711–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343302039006004.
Earl, Jennifer, Andrew Martin, John D McCarthy, and Sarah A Soule. 2004. “The Use of Newspaper Data in the Study of Collective Action.” Annual Review of Sociology 30 (1): 65–80.
Huntington, Samuel P. 2000. “Try Again: A Reply to Russett, Oneal & Cox.” Journal of Peace Research 37 (5): 609–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343300037005004.
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2003. “The Ontology of ‘Political Violence’: Action and Identity in Civil Wars.” Perspectives on Politics 1 (03): 475–94. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592703000355.
Mazur, Kevin. 2019. “State Networks and Intra-Ethnic Group Variation in the 2011 Syrian Uprising.” Comparative Political Studies 52 (7): 995–1027. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414018806536.
Oneal, John R., and Bruce M. Russett. 2000. “A Response to Huntington.” Journal of Peace Research 37 (5): 611–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343300037005005.
Russett, Bruce M., John R. Oneal, and Michaelene Cox. 2000. “Clash of Civilizations, or Realism and Liberalism Déjà Vu? Some Evidence.” Journal of Peace Research 37 (5): 583–608. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343300037005003.
Wedeen, Lisa. 2002. “Conceptualizing Culture: Possibilities for Political Science.” American Political Science Review 96 (4): 713–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055402000400.