Replication Data for: The diffusion of racist violence in the Netherlands: Discourse and distance

This article illuminates the unanticipated but intense waves of xenophobia that have swept through Western Europe over the last decade. The author makes use of a unique dataset and diffusion models to simultaneously investigate the geographical and temporal development of waves of racist violence in the Netherlands during the turbulent period 2001–03, when the country lost its reputation as a multicultural paradise. The results provide evidence for the fact that previous riots enhance the legitimacy of violence elsewhere, especially if they are visible in the mass media, resonate with public debates on immigration and take place in nearby regions. Opposing previous research on mobilization, the analysis suggests that proxies for ethnic competition, deprivation and political opportunity structures are not significantly related to the outbreak of violence; only population size adequately predicts where violence starts. Together these findings suggest that waves of xenophobia develop in two steps: they start in large cities and subsequently spread to nearby places through geographically clustered networks and to more distant counties once they become visible and resonate in the mass media, turning violence from local deviance into a supra-local phenomenon. This process sheds light on how scales of protest shift and explains why seemingly tolerant regions can suddenly become xenophobic hotbeds.

本文揭示了近十年间席卷西欧的、始料未及却愈演愈烈的排外主义浪潮。作者借助一套独特的数据集与扩散模型（diffusion models），同时探究了2001至2003年动荡时期荷兰境内种族暴力浪潮的地理与时间演化轨迹——彼时荷兰已然褪去其多元文化天堂的美誉。研究结果证实，此前发生的骚乱会强化其他地区实施暴力行为的合法性，尤其当该骚乱通过大众媒体广泛传播、引发公众关于移民议题的讨论，且发生于邻近区域时，此种效应更为显著。与此前关于集体动员的研究结论相悖，本分析显示，族群竞争、资源匮乏与政治机会结构的代理变量均与暴力事件的爆发无显著关联；唯有人口规模能够有效预测暴力事件的发生地点。综合上述发现，排外主义浪潮的演化可分为两个阶段：首先起源于大型城市，随后通过地理集群网络向邻近地区扩散；而当暴力事件通过大众媒体曝光并引发社会共鸣后，便会进一步蔓延至更远的郡县，将暴力行为从地方性越轨行为转化为超地方性现象。这一过程阐明了抗议活动的尺度如何转变，同时也解释了看似包容的地区为何会突然沦为排外主义温床。