Are many smaller marches more effective than a few larger ones?

March 31, 2017 9:52 AM

In terms of impact, is it better to have a lot of smaller marches attended by some number of people, or is it better to concentrate the people into fewer but larger marches?

In the Los Angeles area, there is a March for Science planned for LA itself, and nearby smaller cities are planning their own. I was planning on going to the LA march, but now people at my institution have recently organized a local city march. I'm sure our city march will be attended by fewer people than the main LA event, but I'm torn about which one to promote and attend.

Is there any evidence to favor larger-but-fewer marches over more-but-smaller marches, in terms of impact on public awareness and (if any) government recognition?

posted by StrawberryPie to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

I don't know the answer to this, but one of the most powerful things for me about the Women's March is that it was EVERYWHERE.
posted by the_blizz at 10:26 AM on March 31, 2017 [7 favorites]

I think the point of the march is to raise awareness. A larger march is more likely to garner media attention and a larger media story, whereas the smaller off-shoot marches don't really get more attention than a small paragraph in the local paper. In that sense, it's better to go for the bigger events.
posted by vignettist at 10:48 AM on March 31, 2017

I think it's important too to remember that besides raising awareness, marches are historically a place to meet like minded people in your community so that the activism lasts into the future... Meet other people who respect and stand for science and plan to do something about it. For this reason, I would vote attending the local march and organizing further resistance.
posted by le_salvo at 1:46 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]

There is theory about “worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment” (WUNC) displays as a means for social movements to demonstrate their level of support. Numbers matter, but so do things like how united and specific a demand you have and how much personal sacrifice individual supporters are willing to undertake.

If you want a broad selection of texts about what makes social movements work, this list may be of interest to you.

For a recent popular account critical of marches as a tactic, see Micah White's "The End of Protest".
posted by sindark at 8:40 PM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]

Small marches can still be effective thanks to social media! Don't count out blogs, instagram, youtube, facebook, can make the small march get more attention than you anticipated.
posted by IraMency at 9:22 PM on April 26, 2017