Riots - An International Comparison

The past ten years have been marked by a series of high profile and heavily mediatised riots across the globe. From the overspill of racial tensions in Sydney to anti-police riots in London, democratic societies have witnessed powerful and costly outbursts of anger and violence. But what are the causes of these large-scale episodes of collective disorder? Do they share common features? And what can they tell us about the nature and significance of riots more broadly?

In this book, the authors address these questions and more with a wide-ranging comparative study of rioting in five countries (Australia, England, France, Greece and the United States). Using a revised and expanded version of the Flashpoints Model of Public Disorder, Matthew Moran and David Waddington dissect these violent and ephemeral social phenomena, laying bare their internal logic and demonstrating the essentially political nature of riots.

Matthew Moran is Senior Lecturer in International Security in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, UK. He is the author of The Republic and the Riots: Exploring Urban Violence in French Suburbs, 2005-2007.

David Waddington is Professor of Communications and Head of the Communication and Computing Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is author of Policing Public Disorder: Theory and Practice, and co-editor (with Fabien Jobard and Mike King) of Rioting in the UK and France: A Comparative Study.