The past ten years have been marked by a series of high profile and heavily mediatised riots across the globe. From the overspill of racial tensions in Sydney to anti-police riots in London, democratic societies have witnessed powerful and costly outbursts of anger and violence. But what are the causes of these large-scale episodes of collective disorder? Do they share common features? And what can they tell us about the nature and significance of riots more broadly?

In this book, the authors address these questions and more with a wide-ranging comparative study of rioting in five countries (Australia, England, France, Greece and the United States). Using a revised and expanded version of the Flashpoints Model of Public Disorder, Matthew Moran and David Waddington dissect these violent and ephemeral social phenomena, laying bare their internal logic and demonstrating the essentially political nature of riots.