PLOVER Summary
Index
Some suggestions for coding using prodigy/plodigy
- While the annotation files are organized by PLOVER category, make sure you have some familiarity with the entire scheme
so that you will know if some alternative category is a better fit.
- It is helpful to review the definition of the category using this document before starting on a new section.
- The accuracy of the various coders will vary considerably depending on both the nature and the frequency of the event, and
in cases of relatively rare events, it is likely that almost all of the cases you find will be rejects.
- Use the ignore category for any cases which you either think should not be an event—this will be the most common
case—or you can't decide on the category. Don't hesitate to use : in contemporary coding, almost all events of any importance
are reported in multiple sources and multiple ways, and its better just to skip texts that are ambiguous.
- Three important PLOVER context categories are “historical”, “future”, and “hypothetical”: PLOVER assumes that the coding engine will be able to resolve these and put that information in the context list, so no such distinctions occur in the definitions of the events themselves.
- In contrast to earlier event ontologies, PLOVER does not code any sort of simple commentary or appeals: verbal statements are considered event only if they indicate some policy or material change.
- PLOVER is still under development, so please make notes on places where the documentation and/or the definitions of the categories seem to be unclear.
AGREE
Agree to, offer, promise, or otherwise indicate willingness or commitment to cooperate. All cooperative actions reported in future tense are also taken to imply intentions.
Note: It's not entirely clear that we should maintain the distinction—which was inherited from the original human-coded WEIS ontology from the 1960s—between AGREE and SUPPORT: use your best judgment and we'll re-visit this once we've got a large set of annotations.
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CONSULT
All consultations and meetings: this includes visiting and hosting visits, as well as meeting at a neutral location, and consultation by phone or other media. Other useful keywords: “Holding talks” and “discussions”, “negotiations, bargaining, or discussions”.
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SUPPORT
Initiate, resume, improve, or expand diplomatic, non-material cooperation; express support for, commend, approve policy, action, or actor. This event form is a verbal act. Use this code only for political, diplomatic, and non-material support, including recognition of newly independent states, new governments that might have come to power through unconventional means, and initiation of diplomatic ties with an entity for the first time, as are actions which ratify, sign, or finalize an agreement or treaty.
SUPPORT is distinct from the CAMEO APPEAL category, where the actor simply requested support from the target: these events, like comments generally, are not coded in PLOVER.
See comment under AGREE on the possible ambiguity of the AGREE/SUPPORT categories
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CONCEDE
This covers verbal concessions which have no immediate material consequences, including promised of future concessions, including easing of administrative or legal restrictions on persons and organizations, remove curfews, suspending protests, declarations (but not implementations) of ceasefires and withdrawals from territory.
CONCEDE, like the verbal components CAMEO/WEIS predecessor YIELD, is inherently problem since many concessions deal with promises that certain things will not happen, or will happen in the distant future (e.g. many policy changes). So, for example, the lifting of a curfew is, effectively, a promise that people will not be arrested for violating the curfew, which itself is not an event. We're treating such concessions as verbal rather than material even though sometimes they have material consequences, e.g. people coming out in the streets after a curfew is lifted. But only if they believe the government.
COOPERATE
Initiate, resume, improve, or expand mutual material cooperation or exchange, including
- Initiate, resume, improve, or expand economic exchange or cooperation.
- Military exchanges such as joint military games and maneuvers.
- Cooperation on judicial matters, such as extraditions and war crimes.
- Voluntary exchanges or sharing of intelligence and other significant information .
COOPERATE is distinguished from AID because the activity is generally understood to directly benefit both parties, whereas AID is understood to primarily benefit only the recipient.
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AID
All provisions of providing material aid whose material benefits primarily accrue to the recipient. Examples include:
- Monetary aid and financial guarantees, grants, gifts and credit.
- Military and police assistance including arms and personnel.
- Humanitarian aid such as emergency assistance.
- Asylum, both to persons in its territories (territorial asylum) and diplomatic asylum on the premises of an embassy.
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RETREAT
RETREAT covers any events—not just military “retreat” from territory—which have an immediate (not simply promised) material consequences, such as the release of prisoners and hostages, repatriation of refugees, the return of confiscated property, allowing the entry of observers, peacekeepers, or humanitarian workers, disarming, observing a ceasefire or otherwise ending active conflicts, and, of course, a military retreat from, or ceding, territory. RETREAT also covers resignations of government officials.
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INVESTIGATE
All investigations, including those of historical cases. Examples include investigations of criminal activity (theft, killing, etc) and corruption, human rights abuses, war crime, and violations of basic freedoms, military activities such as violations of ceasefire, seizures, and invasions.
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DEMAND
All demands and orders. Demands are stronger or more forceful than a request or appeal—which is not coded in PLOVER—and potentially carry more serious repercussions, although not as much as threats. Coding will need to rely primarily on the language used by reporters to make this distinction. All demands are verbal acts.
Examples from the CAMEO manual include:
- Demand that target engages in some form of material or economic exchange or assistance.
- Demand that target engages in or expands military relations or assistance.
- Demand that target engages in or expands cooperation in judicial matters.
- Demand that target exchanges intelligence or information.
- Demand expansion of diplomatic ties or non-tangible support on particular policies.
- Demands by refugees to be let into the territories of other countries (which should be coded as targets) and asylum demands all fit here. These are not necessarily verbal acts; refugees could be actively seeking shelter or refuge in target countries or regions.
- Demand that the target provides military protection or peacekeeping forces for itself or on behalf of another party.
- Demand for elections, changes in leadership or regime, or constitutional/institutional/policy change.
- Demand provision or expansion of social, political, or other rights, as well as demands for provision of compensation for previously violated rights.
- Require, demand major institutional, constitutional, or regime change.
- Demands for fundamental changes in the political system (e.g. democratization) as well as more limited institutional changes (e.g. changing electoral law).
- Demand that target relaxes administrative restrictions.
- Demand that target stops political protest activities.
- Demand that target releases persons (e.g. prisoners, hostages) or property.
- Demand that target lifts or eases economic sanctions, boycott, or embargo.
- Demand that target allow access to international actors, such as observers, humanitarian agencies, and peacekeeping forces.
- Demand that target stops fighting or takes measures to ease military conflict or tension, for example ceasefires, military withdrawals, and demobilization.
- Order party(ies) to meet, negotiate; this event form can be initiated by either the adversaries or other third parties.
- Order parties to a conflict to reach a settlement, agreement, or resolution of conflict.
- Demand that a third party mediates a conflict or that adversaries accept mediation of another party.
Exceptions
- This category only applies to verbal demands: demands that take the form of demonstrations, protests, etc. are coded as PROTEST.
- When one or more parties to a conflict call for ending the conflict, that is taken to be an expression of intent on the part of that source actor and is thus coded as AGREE.
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DISAPPROVE
Express disapprovals, objections, and complaints; condemn, decry a policy or an action; criticize, defame, denigrate responsible parties.
Examples from the CAMEO manual include:
- Allege, charge the target with, or blame for engaging in crime or corruption.
- Allege, charge the target with, or blame for human rights violations, such as arbitrary detentions for prosecutions, torture, and slavery.
- Allege, charge the target with, or blame for initiating hostilities or engaging in questionable or unjustifiable military actions such as violations of ceasefire, or with war crimes.
- Allege, charge the target with, or blame for spying, espionage, or treason.
- Solicit other parties to take actions against the target.
- Written and institutionalized protests, appeals, and all petition drives and recalls.
- Sue, file civil or criminal lawsuit at domestic or international courts. Source must be the plaintiff or the state, and target must be the defendant.
- Find guilty or liable at a court of law. Source must be the court in question, which could be domestic or international, and target must be the defendant. This event form refers typically to rulings against non-individuals, where imprisonment is not an issue. When individuals are found guilty and are therefore detained, use COERCE instead.
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REJECT
All rejections and refusals.
Examples from the CAMEO manual include:
- Refuse to engage in or expand material exchange. Note the difference between refusing to establish or expand material cooperation and reducing or eliminating existing ties SANCTION.
- Refuse to engage in or expand economic ties; rejection to provide financial aid is coded as SANCTION instead.
- Rejections of mutual economic exchange, such as trade and investment
- Refuse to engage in or expand military ties.
- Rejections of mutual military exchange; rejection to provide military aid is coded as SANCTION instead.
- Refuse to engage in or expand cooperation in judicial matters, including extraditions or other matters pertaining to legal proceedings.
- Refuse to engage in or expand cooperation in intelligence or information sharing.
- Refuse to extend financial, military or humanitarian assistance. Refusals to provide shelter or refuge should also be coded here.
- Refuse to provide peacekeeping forces or other form of military protection; refusals by adversaries to grant access to peacekeepers.
- Refuse to change leadership or relinquish power.
- Refuse to change a given policy.
- Refuse to provide or respect social, political, economic or other rights and freedoms.
- Refuse to make fundamental political changes, such as moving from one type of a political system to another and reforming political institutions or key laws.
- Reject requests, refuse or decline to ease administrative sanctions, such as censorship, curfew, state of emergency, and martial law.
- Reject requests, refuse, or decline to reduce or stop political protest activities, such as demonstrations and rallies.
- Reject requests, refuse, or decline to release or return persons or property.
- Reject requests, refuse, or decline to reduce or eliminate economic sanctions, boycotts, or embargoes.
- Reject requests, refuse or decline to allow access to international actors such as observers, humanitarian agencies, and peacekeeping forces.
- Reject requests, refuse, or decline to stop fighting or take measures to ease military conflict or tension, including ceasefires, military withdrawals, and demobilization.
- Refuse to meet, discuss, or negotiate, including involvement of mediators or mediation initiatives.
- Reject a proposal or request for a final, comprehensive settlement, peace proposal, or resolution.
- Disobey, challenge, or resist laws or norms.This event category covers both civilian disobedience and official defiance.
- Refuse to assent or formally reject legislative proposal, recommendation, or resolution.
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THREATEN
All threats, coercive or forceful warnings with serious potential repercussions. Threats are typically verbal acts.
Examples from the CAMEO manual include:
- Threats to reduce or eliminate provision of material assistance—economic, military, humanitarian, and peacekeeping.
- Threaten to restrict normal economic interactions by imposing sanctions, boycotts, or embargoes.
- Threaten to reduce or formally sever ties. Non-force threats to declare independence, resign, withdraw diplomats, reduce or break diplomatic ties, etc. are all coded here.
- Threaten to impose or expand non-force administrative restrictions and penalties not otherwise specified.
- Threaten to impose or expand restrictions on fundamental freedoms, such as freedoms of speech, expression, and assembly.
- Threaten to ban political activities of particular parties or individuals.
- Threatened with imprisonment or other measures of repression.
- Threaten to enforce a deadline beyond which inhabitants of an area are not permitted to be on the streets or in public places.
- Threaten with suspending certain given rights or the whole constitution by imposing state of emergency or military rule.
- Threaten to mobilize or engage in actions of political dissent such as protest demonstrations, hunger strikes, strikes or boycotts, physical obstructions into buildings or areas, and riots.
- Threaten to break-up or withdraw from discussion, negotiation, or meeting.
- Threaten to reduce or stop international intervention by expelling or withdrawing observers, humanitarian agencies, peacekeepers, etc.
- Threats by international agencies to withdraw their involvement as well as threats by host countries to expel such actors are coded here.
- Threaten dissidents with forcible subjugation.
- Threats to imprison as well as to use force to clamp down on opposition activities are coded here.
- Threaten to prevent entry into and/or exit from a territory using military measures.
- Threaten to occupy, seize control of the whole or part of a territory. This event form is typically a verbal act and is distinct from ASSAULT, which refers to military occupations that have been or are being carried out.
- Threaten to use violence, including terrorist activities
- Give a final warning, ultimate demand or order, the rejection of which carries the risk of some form of retaliation by the party issuing the ultimatum.
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PROTEST
All civilian demonstrations and other collective actions carried out as protests against the target actor: Dissent collectively, publicly show negative feelings or opinions; rally, gather to protest a policy, action, or actor(s).
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CRIME
CRIME events are non-political actions which are considered crimes in the jurisdiction where they occur: the list below shows the common examples. This category is not intended for the coding of acts of civil disobedience, revolt and other activities which, while criminal from the perspective of the government, are primarily political in nature.
There is often a great deal of ambiguity as to whether some activities are criminal or political: for example, confiscatory activities by a weak militarized group with little local support. Usually such distinctions will not be apparent at the sentence—or even article—level and need to be resolved elsewhere in the analysis, for example by the classification of the actor.
Examples
- murder
- assault
- sexual violence
- illegal provision of sexual services for money or goods
- theft, robbery and burglary, including vehicular theft
- kidnapping and hijacking
- narcotics, including production, transport and sale
- smuggling (property)
- smuggling/trafficking (humans)
- trespass; illegal mining, logging, fishing
- arson
- vandalism and other destruction of property
- extortion
- bribery and other corruption of officials
- money laundering, tax evasion, insider-trading, embezzlement
- cyber-crime
- war crimes
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SANCTION
All reductions in normal, routine, or cooperative relations not otherwise specified. Note that this is not confined to formal “sanctions”—SANCTION was just the best word we could find for WEIS and CAMEO's “REDUCE RELATIONS”
Examples from the CAMEO manual include:
- Curtail, decrease, break, or terminate diplomatic exchange.
- Cancellation of meetings, withdrawal, or expulsion of diplomats and termination of other diplomatic activities
- Reductions or terminations of aid not otherwise specified.
- Decrease or terminate provision of economic, military or humanitarian aid.
- Stop or restrict commercial or other material exchange as a form of protest or punishment.
- Terminate discussions, negotiations. Use this event form to code failed negotiations and walk-outs, as well as other disruptions of planned negotiations. Note that the termination can be either unilateral or bi/multi-lateral.
- Terminate mediation activities.
- Terminate the presence of groups or organizations: this covers both expulsions by host authorities and withdrawals by guest groups or organizations, as well as diplomats are withdrawn or expelled. .
- Terminate the deployment or presence of peacekeeping forces, inspectors or other observers.
- Terminate the presence of aid agencies or other non-governmental organizations helping civilians.
Exceptions
- Expulsions or deportations of individuals—typically a legal matter—are coded as COERCE
- Withdrawal of hostile military forces constitutes a form of yielding and is thus coded as YIELD.
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MOBILIZE
All military or police moves that fall short of the actual use of force. This category is different from ASSAULT and FIGHT, as they refer to uses of force, while military posturing falls short of actual use of force and is typically a demonstration of military capabilities and readiness.
MOBILIZE is also distinct from THREAT in that the latter refers merely to threats, is typically verbal, and does not involve any activity that is undertaken to demonstrate military power. Source actors are not necessarily militaries affiliated with states but any organized armed groups. Targets are actors against whom the source mobilizes its military capabilities in a threatening manner if that is clear, but a group may mobilize with no specific target stated.
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COERCE
Repression, violence against civilians, or their rights or properties. This includes the following modes:
- confiscate property
- destroy property
- impose restrictions on political freedoms or movement
- ban individuals or organizations
- censor, ban or restrict access to publications
- impose curfew
- impose state of emergency or martial law
- arrest, detain, or charge with legal action
- expel or deport individuals
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ASSAULT
ASSAULT events are deliberate actions which can potentially result in substantial physical harm: The list below shows the common modes:
- abduct, kipnap, hijack
- physically assault
- torture
- judicially-sanctioned execution
- sexual violence
- targeted assassinations with any weapon
- primitive weapons: fire, edged weapons, rocks, farm implements
- rifles, pistols, light machine guns
- any explosive not incorporated in a heavy weapon: mines, IEDS, car bombs
- individual and vehicular suicide attacks
- crew-served and other heavy weapons
Last update: 28 December 2017