Global Discontent


In recent years the world has been shaken by protests, from the Arab Spring to the “yellow vests,” from the Occupy movement to the social uprising in Latin America. There have been periods in history when large numbers of people rebelled against the way things were, demanding change, such as in 1848, 1917, and 1968; today we are experiencing another period of rising outrage and discontent, and some of the largest protests in world history.     
                     

To better understand this increase in protests, the publication “World Protests: A study of key protest issues in the 21st century” by Isabel Ortiz, Sara Burke, Mohamed Berrada and Hernán Saenz Cortés (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) analyzes 2,809 protests that occurred between 2006 and 2020 in 101 countries covering over 93 per cent of the world population.


People demands include, among others, from better jobs, wages and public services to real democracy, lack of corruption and civil rights. Governments need to listen to the messages coming from protesters. Most demands are in full accordance with Human Rights and internationally agreed UN development goals.


A companion website to further explore protests is available here.

The publication can be downloaded for free here as well as summaries in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish

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