In 2015, from COES arose the idea to build an Observatory of Conflicts (OC) whose objective is identify conflicts in Chile through press analysis. The OC's work will allow to detect regularities and patterns, at different levels, national, regional and local, all trying to follow the logic of conflict escalation. In this way, it is intended to obtain relevant data on the level of conflict in Chile in recent years. To do this, the report “The Social Protest in Latin America” of the UNDP Regional Directorate for the empirical data collection, conceptually close to the COES Theoretical Agenda, was taken as a theoretical model.

The methodology to be used is data collection through press analysis. Articles related to some type of conflict are identified and coded according to the instructions designed for this purpose. A coverage of national circulation newspapers is made, as well as regional circulation newspapers and thus be able to cover local conflicts that are not described by national means.

The interest in understanding the conflict in Chile through the analysis of protest events defined certain themes as fundamental: number and geographical distribution of the conflict, magnitude with respect to the participants of the events, actors involved, convening organizations, demand elements, level of violence, tactics used, among others.