Economic and Geopolitical Crises and Waves of Social Unrest

该项目将通过与19世纪中期至今的类似历史时期进行比较，揭示2008年后全球劳工和社会动荡的高潮。社会动荡与经济和地缘政治危机有何联系？该项目使用1851年以来的《纽约时报》和《卫报》（伦敦）的数字报纸创建了一个新的数据库。因此，它将当前全球社会抗议浪潮的分析置于一个比通常更长的时间框架和更广泛的地理范围内。这将使人们有可能直接讨论和解决有关当前抗议浪潮是否具有历史意义和新颖的争论。新数据库的收集和传播方式将有利于研究人员和教师。项目设计包括一个重要的培训组成部分，为学生团队提供获得专业水平的研究培训和实践研究经验的机会。由于其强度和全球传播，关于最近抗议浪潮的原因和意义的学术辩论如雨后春笋般涌现，包括关于参与者的阶级构成以及将骚乱与经济危机和地缘政治转型联系起来的因果机制的辩论。本项目的主要假设包括检查是否：(1)在强度和地理传播方面类似于当前的全球社会动荡浪潮很少发生，而且只发生在世界霸权危机和转型时期——即激烈和交织的经济和地缘政治危机时期，如国家间和国家内战争)；(2) 2008年后的全球社会抗议浪潮与19世纪末和20世纪初英国世界霸权危机期间发生的动荡浪潮有很强的相似性；(3)劳工动乱是这两波全球社会动乱的重要组成部分。当前时期的一个特别特点是，无法找到稳定工资工作（不稳定就业、失业、就业不足等）的工人发挥了很大作用，他们没有重要的替代（非工资）生计手段。, # 8195;

This project will shed light on the post-2008 global upsurge of labor and social unrest by comparing it to analogous historical periods from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. How is social unrest linked to economic and geopolitical crises? The project creates a new data base using digital newspapers of The New York Times and The Guardian (London) from 1851 forward. Thus, it situates the analysis of the current global wave of social protest in a much longer temporal frame and broader geographical scope than is normally done. It will make it possible to directly address and resolve debates about whether or not the current wave of protest is historically significant and novel. The new database will be collected and disseminated in a way that will be useful for researchers and teachers. The project design includes a significant training component, providing a team of students with the opportunity to gain professional level research training and hands-on research experience. Because of its intensity and global spread, scholarly debates on the causes and significance of the recent protest wave have mushroomed, including debates about the class composition of the participants and the causal mechanisms linking unrest to economic crises and geopolitical transformations. Main hypotheses of this project include examination of whether or not: (1) global waves of social unrest, analogous to the present in terms of intensity and geographical spread, have occurred only rarely, and only in periods of world hegemonic crisis and transition--that is, periods of intense and intertwined economic and geopolitical crises, such as inter-state and intra-state warfare); (2) the post-2008 wave of global social protest has strong analogies with the wave of unrest that took place during the late 19th and early 20th century crisis of British world hegemony; and (3) labor unrest is an important component of both waves of global social unrest. A particular feature of the current period is the large role played by workers who are unable to find stable wage employment (precariously employed, unemployed, underemployed, etc.) and who have no significant alternative (non-wage) means of livelihood.