Dr Patricia M.Thornton has been awarded a BA Small Grant for ‘Knots of Ungovernability: Mapping Popular Contention in China over Time and Space’. The project will run from 1 March 2010 to 30 November 2010.
The research will link data on the size, location, and duration of protest events during the Republican (1911-1949) and reform (1978-present) eras in China to static maps using ArcGIS Tracking Analyst—software originally designed to track the progress of epidemic diseases and natural disasters— in order to create animated time-series maps designed to demonstrate patterns of the clustering and diffusion of protest events in China over time.
The goal is to develop an overall model to explain the emergence and spread of popular contention, and to analyze the varying propensity of specific locales to engage in unrest over time.
