Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Research on inter-group relations frequently attempts to investigate why a minor event (e.g., an interaction with a law enforcement official, or a small fight) would escalate into a larger conflagration. Much of this work either focuses on macro-level factors that account for the larger context within which these transformations occur or they focus on specific micro-level factors that account for the sequence of relevant events involved with the conflicts themselves. We attempt to add to this literature by investigating some factors that are normally ignored: the overall activity, interests, and institutions of the groups involved outside of the realm of the specific interaction of interest. Simply, we attempt to situate the micro-to-macro transformation into the context of the conflicting groups overall activity repertoire (i.e., all actions taken within as well as outside of the community of interest).
To explore these issues we use event-data collected about a conflict involving American Blacks and Jews that took place in Harlem, New York in March of 1935 (by the city-week). Our study reveals that conflagrations take place within a context where group activity is responding to dynamics within the other community in question. Conflagrations themselves are also shown to have lasting impacts on what conflicting parties do after the events of interest occur. Our study reveals that events-based research into intergroup relations where actors are undergoing radical identity transitions is extremely complex. The study raised numerous questions: e.g., who is Jewish and Black, what counts as an interaction between actors when they do not self identify, what level of interaction is the most salient for gauging levels of conflict and cooperation? Perhaps most important, our study revealed that it is possible for multiple parties involved within a conflict to frame group interactions in a such a way that certain combatants and/or targets of group action are removed from all discussion. This complicates the investigation of intergroup interaction and, indeed, within our search to identify and understand Black-Jewish conflict, it left us with Blacks “rioting” alone.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper uses an entirely new dataset of riots and votes from 1998-2002 in the Western Indian state of Gujarat, as well as multi-level modeling and qualitative research (including film of election meetings), to demonstrate the extent of riots in swinging the 2002 elections in that state, and the way in which politicians used the riots to reframe the salient dimensions of politics.

Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: On July 10, 1966 Dr. Martin Luther King spoke to a rapt and cheering crowd of 60,000 at Solider Field, two days later while attempting to address a small congregation at a Westside church he faced heckles, boos, and audience members walking out. One resident captured the doubt of King’s organizing tactics, “No more marching. It don’t accomplish nothing…We’re going to tear Chicago up.” In the following days those black Chicagoans without traditional political power showed that violence could be a very effectual form of political action. The civil disturbances that occurred in metropolises in the 1960s have been construed as anything from urban rebellions to “spasmodic violence and hooliganism.” I argue that the 1960s urban disturbances are not an ahistorical phenomenon, but an articulation of a much older phenomenon, rioting as working class politics.
Employing violent labor history theory, I have developed four characteristics which are hallmarks of working class riots: 1. participants in the disturbance are clearly identified as a working class or an impoverished demographic. 2. a democratic system is present but the participants of the riot are politically impotent. 3. the group believes that some tangible gain will come from this political violence 4. aggressions are typically aimed towards outsiders. By highlighting these hallmarks in the context of the 1966 fire hydrant rebellion, I show that what made Chicago “the city of big shoulders” is what made it poised to be the city of big riots.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper explores some of the ways in which contemporary economic and demographic changes are interacting to produce new forms of social disorder and political power. Drawing in particular on Foucault and on Marxism, it is argued that the intensification of global capitalism promoted by neoliberalism, coupled with world population growth and greater demographic mobility, is producing a particular conjunction of forces in which governments are experimenting with new forms of power. Prominent among them are greater bureaucratic and market discipline, as well as renewals of ideological and repressive strategies. The claims advanced here are illustrated by discussions in the second part of the paper of events and forms of power in Britain and France. In the UK, the focus is on debates over Faith Schools; responses to domestic terrorism; policies towards those whose lives are classified as chaotic and a recent shift away from multiculturalism towards concerns about integration and ideological experiments with new notions of Britishness. In the French context the paper considers explanations for the recent riots in the banlieues and the student demonstrations that followed them. The claim here is that underlying economic and demographic changes on a global, structural level are motivating similar solutions across Western states, in the pursuit of new forms of power. Finally, the paper argues that social critics need to trace in detail the genealogy of these new forms, in particular regarding their effects on everyday life and agency, and to evaluate them in light of the changing sociology of contemporary geopolitical forces.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This submission consists of a website designed to enhance learning and data collection with respect to a particular set of historical events-- the Newark and Detroit Riots of 1967.
As part of the poster session we will impart specific information on the use of web based technology with streaming video and weblogs to communicate academic subjects to a wider audience.