Re-reading the riots

What caused the August 2011 riots? Why did they spread? Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott MP; friend of Mark Duggan and freelance youth mentor Marcus Knox-Hooke; retired Police Superintendent Leroy Logan MBE; and social psychology professors Steve Reicher and John Drury, will be joined by chair Paul Lewis, associate editor at The Guardian, to discuss why civil unrest can spread with such rapidity and how to prevent riots from repeating in the future.

Following the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham by police, many have tried to trace the reasons riots broke out in communities across the country, spreading from London to cities as far as Birmingham, Nottingham and Liverpool. New research, which builds on The Guardian and the London School of Economics’ original data-driven investigation into the causes and consequences of the disorder suggests that the attacks on police and property were not “contagious” and did not sweep mindlessly through different crowds. Instead, factors such as a shared social identity and antagonism towards the police fuelled the spread of violence between communities.

Have relationships between communities and the police been successfully rebuilt? What lessons can we learn from the events of 2011 to create a better future for our cities? 

You can read the interim report here. 

You can listen to the audio recording here.