Social Conflict Analysis Database
The Social Conflict Analysis Database (SCAD) is a resource for conducting research and analysis on various forms of social and political unrest in Africa. It includes over 20,000 social conflict events across Africa from 1990 to 2011, including riots, strikes, protests, coups, and communal violence. Winner, 2017 J. David Singer Data Innovations Award, American Political Science Association.
By tracking forms of conflict not covered in traditional datasets on civil and interstate war, SCAD gives policymakers and researchers new tools to analyze conflict patterns and possible intervention strategies in Africa. While previous data sources have focused on large-scale conflicts like civil and international wars, SCAD catalogues the myriad ways conflict manifests as political and social disorder.
SCAD includes protests, riots, strikes, inter-communal conflict, government violence against civilians, and other forms of social conflict not systematically tracked in other conflict datasets. Each event record contains information on the location, timing, and magnitude of social conflict events, as well as the actors, targets, issues of contention, and government response. While other data sources contain rich information about armed conflict in Africa, the goal of the SCAD project is to provide researchers, journalists, NGOs, and the policy community more detail about other forms of social conflict.
Project Partners
SCAD was part of the Climate Change and African Political Stability (CCAPS) project at the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at UT-Austin
Research Team
- Cullen Hendrix, Professor, Josef Korbel School of International Studies
- Idean Salehyan, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of North Texas