Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia

The document presents a dataset of 3,375 urban social disturbance events, including both violent and non-violent political activities, compiled from the Keesing’s Record of World Events. It details the selection of 23 cities in Sub-Saharan Africa and 32 in Asia, the coding scheme used to categorize event types and casualties, and the challenges associated with using news reports as a primary data source. Analysis shows an increasing trend in both total and lethal events over time, with a higher average number of events reported for Asian cities compared to African cities.

• The dataset records a total of 3,375 urban social disturbance events across 55 cities in 49 countries between 1960 and 2006, with 1,378 of these events involving lethal casualties.
• The most common types of social disturbance identified in the dataset are organized demonstrations, followed by armed attacks and spontaneous riots.
• Teheran, Iran, recorded the highest number of events (219), while Kabul, Afghanistan, and Karachi, Pakistan, showed high lethality rates of 65% and 62% respectively.
• There is a general increasing trend in both the total number of events and the number of lethal events from 1960 to 2006, though the author notes this may be influenced by a time bias resulting from better reporting.
• Asian cities had a higher average of reported social disturbance events (72) compared to Sub-Saharan African cities (46), and African events had a higher share of lethality (43%) than Asian events (33%).
• The use of news reports as a data source introduces potential biases, including censorship by autocratic regimes, the priorities of developed-world news consumers, and improvements in communications technology that may inflate reported trends.
• Significant gaps exist in the available event data, with event location missing for 69.5% of cases and the number of participants missing for 59.2%.

APA

Urdal, H. (2008). Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/50dd7f7e-027b-4ae3-ae8a-2eb41c7dc788/Urdal 2008 Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia PRIO Paper.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Urdal, Henrik. Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2008. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/50dd7f7e-027b-4ae3-ae8a-2eb41c7dc788/Urdal 2008 Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia PRIO Paper.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Urdal |first1=Henrik |title=Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=2008 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/50dd7f7e-027b-4ae3-ae8a-2eb41c7dc788/Urdal 2008 Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia PRIO Paper.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{urdal2008urban, author = {Urdal, Henrik}, title = {{Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2008}, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/50dd7f7e-027b-4ae3-ae8a-2eb41c7dc788/Urdal 2008 Urban Social Disturbance in Africa and Asia PRIO Paper.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }