Protest Event Datasets in Eastern Europe

In the last few years, the protest event analysis (PEA; a type of quantitative content analysis), has emerged as a key method in the study of collective actions, social movements, strikes, episodes of social unrest, and revolutions. Our database presents comprehensive information on 51 accessible collections of protest event data for countries in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. This includes the countries and time periods they cover, data sources, types of events, research publications utilising the data, references, and (in most cases) links to the original datasets. The primary aim of the database is to deepen our understanding of contemporary and historical societal dynamics across the three regions while fostering critical engagement with the challenges and opportunities of this methodology.

All the presented datasets share the same core principle of retrieving information about collective actions from textual sources and converting it into quantitative indicators (e.g. number of events, participants, dates, locations). However, they differ in their methodologies. Most datasets rely on coding news from the local press, online media and news agencies, while others incorporate official reports from state institutions or analyses by civil society organisations. Another key difference lies in the scope of the events covered. Some datasets include all forms of collective action within the studied timeframe, whereas others focus on specific event types, such as political protests, strikes, nationalist rallies or mass protests and revolutions.

The visualisation enables users to select the type of events, time periods, and countries for which data will be displayed.

The database was developed by Ivaylo Dinev (ZOiS), with visualisation by Iaroslav Boretskii (ZOiS).

Currently, the DataLab works on a Conflict and Cooperation Database, too.

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Citation: Dinev, Ivaylo (2024). Protest Event Datasets in Eastern Europe v.1.1., KonKoop. https://konkoop.de/index.php/protest-event-datasets/

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Although the map shows today’s borders, some of the integrated datasets cover countries that no longer exist (e.g. Mark Beissinger’s dataset of Demonstrations and Mass Violent Events in the USSR). Similarly, some datasets cover countries at a time when they had a different legal status (e.g. the Jay Ulfelder's dataset covers the Baltic states when they were still part of the Soviet Union). The purpose of the map is to make it easier for visitors to find specific data on specific countries.
The boundaries, abbreviations and titles of the aforementioned countries on the schematic map imply official endorsement and acceptance by the United Nations at the time of publication (December 2024). In addition, Germany officially recognises and supports diplomatic relations with the Republic of Kosovo since the country declared its independence in 2008.
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