Youth, urbanisation, and insurgent recruitment in Turkey

Ollie will present a study examining spatial and temporal trends in the recruitment of urban youth at the level of individuals by merging thousands of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) obituaries with a population registry. This will represent the first large-scale quantitative comparison of insurgents to both random and demographically matched samples of the entire adult population of a country.

The notion that large urban youth cohorts are a key driver of civil conflict is widely held among policymakers and scholars alike, particularly since the youth-led protests of the Arab Spring. Yet empirical evidence thereon is scant due largely to the inaccessibility of data. 

A detailed exploration of the factors associated with urban youth recruitment to the PKK finds that second born children and children from larger families are more likely to join the PKK. Dense spatial clustering of recruits within urban neighbourhoods compared to the general population is suggestive of peer effects in the process or recruitment, and internal migration tied to conflict-induced displacement may act as a potential motivating factor.

This event will be particularly useful for those interested in insurgent recruitment and spatial analysis.

This is a hybrid event and you can attend either virtually or in-person.

Related links

• QSS seminar series
• Quantitative Social Science (QSS)
• Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS)
• Social Research Institute