Introduction
Events play a significant role in the society where they take place. Apart from promising economic benefits, events exemplify different social and cultural values for the community as well as those who attend the event. The history of events dates back to the start of mass tourism within the mid-1900s, which substantially alleviated the prospective of events to influence, socio-cultural development, and also economic development in various localities (Martin, 2015). In contemporary society, it is noteworthy that the government, non-governmental organizations, businesses, individuals, groups, and the community at large have turned to the strategic planning of events as a way to maximize positive impacts effect for development purposes. Mostly, all events have impacts socially or culturally. Precisely, events, especially planned events, have an objective with a desired and anticipated outcome. As a result, they do have an impact on the host communities caused by events’ outcomes (Reed, 2019). These impacts can affect the society culturally, environmentally, socially, or economically, which is the main driver of the support for the developing popularity of events at both national and international levels. Drawing on the theme of ‘events as a protest,’ and protest march as the event type, this paper will evaluate as well as question the social and cultural role of events in the modern society.
Influence culture and social life
Up to date, in terms of policy contexts, there have been concerns with the need to have a better understanding of social impacts related to events. The addition of social values into policymaking can be reflected in the attitudinal change that still exists since the 1990s at a time when local authorities began to admit pleasure to be an official objective of the public sector intervention. Events influences policies, which in turn affect the community (Fominaya, 2014). Essentially, community inhabitants provoked by events that are poorly planned are probable to make a significant contribution to a negative experience in society. Present methodologies, measures, as well as scales utilized in evaluating social roles and impacts of events tend being developed for and centered on case studies of events. Events have been found to influence the culture and social life of the community. Many still rely on events such as protests to shape public policy. However, some argue that these events play a small role in cultural and social issues affecting both private and public issues making it be more questionable.
Shaping political agendas
Protest has been considered to be a very important event, especially in shaping political agendas and policies which tend to influence the cultural and social life of the people. Today, protests in the form of political marches and protests have been increasingly used to move agendas and make sure that changes are made. For instance, the recent marches have been concerning the impeachment of United States President Donald Trump, the police brutality in the United States, and the most current, the Women’s March. Most people tend to associate protests and marches with the Civil Rights Movement or even the Suffragette Movement. The usage of protests and marches is essential in cultural and social development (Fominaya, 2014). These types of events are extremely required in the current society. Today, cultures have been eroded by extensive cultural diversity and technological development. Most people tend to forget or even possibly ignore that our cultural values are getting out of hand. We can lack a platform or ways of restoring our cultural values. An individual’s effort is not adequate to revive our cultural values but instead needs collective action. It requires extensive sensitization and joining forces through events such as protests and marches (Fominaya, 2014). Protests and marches help in attracting the attention of the public and passing outstanding grievances that need to be addressed. It is the most effective way of getting immediate redress. Therefore, protests act as an effective tool for reconstructing our cultural values and standing up to protect it.
Encourage political engagement
In recent research undertaken by economists from Stockholm University and Harvard University identified that protests have a significant impact on politics. Politics play a major role in public life and tends to influence our social life significantly. Most people consider protest and marches to be only working with big crowds which send a message to the government policy-makers, but it is not necessarily all means that. Protests and marches are effective since they encourage people to become politically engaged and active. Today, we live in a democratic world whereby everyone is entitled to ask for their rights, freely speak out their views and grievances, and actively take part in social events (Wieser, Hemetsberger, & Luedicke, 2019). This makes protests and marches to be more relevant in this generation. Protests have become widely accepted and embraced even among college students. For instance, a while ago, College students in various parts of the United States began protesting to fight civil injustice. Essentially, taking part in small or medium-sized protests tend to expand the knowledge base on an individual which is essential in shaping his or her social life. Participation in protests helps in raising awareness and making individuals know important issues that are vital in making people learn to fight for their rights and advocate for their freedom. Protest acts as a life hack that influences people’s social life.
Raising awareness
One of the most important reasons why protests are embraced and practiced in the current society is mainly because it is utilized as a means for raising awareness of an issue affecting society. Protests have been practiced for a long time and have become deeply rooted in our culture. There have been significant technological developments that have transformed communication and ways of conveying messages. Even with the presence of these technologies, people still find protests as the most effective way of raising awareness and pushing for things to get done (Wieser et al., 2019). For instance, in the 2017 Women’s March, several participants were seen converging to participate in this march with the aim of raising awareness not only in the United States but also in the world. This march raises awareness significantly both in the United States and around the globe by the controversies, activism, as well as political campaigns that arose due to the Women’s March. Women stood up in solidarity to call for other women to rise and vote for fellow women to be elected in office. This march focused on raising awareness of their proposals to combat violence against women, racial prejudice, reproductive rights as well as economic fairness. This protest was useful as it was effective in raising awareness and uplifting women’s value in society.
Attracting public attention
Attention is very important in raising awareness and seeking for important issues to be addressed effectively. Therefore, protests remain relevant in these modern terms despite having various technological options for communicating and interacting. Protests have high chances of catching people’s eyes walking by. Most often, when people walking by gets to see or hear protests, they tend to stop so as to hear the voice as well as concerns of the protesters. Protests tend to raise a curiosity in public (Wieser et al., 2019). Therefore, the more the people participating in the protests, the wider the national attention will be on the issue at hand, which will consequentially push government officials to take actions aimed at addressing the issue. One can feel alone when facing a certain challenge. However, when it comes to protests, people sharing the same challenge or problems tend to group together and collectively share a common challenge in which they will strongly fight for it. Protests assists in building social platforms for individuals to establish relationships as well as designing plans and strategies for addressing their issues. This creates a sense of teamwork and promotes the spirit of teamwork among individuals, which is vital in one’s social life. One gets the opportunity to learn teamwork skills, which are vital in their social life. On the other hand, solo activism is generally not effective, and that makes it important to seek collective actions through protests in order to see changes.
Create a sense of togetherness
Protests bring a sense of togetherness and the spirit of helping one another achieve a common goal for the benefit of the community and not only for just a few individuals. Cultural values tend to promote the sense of helping one another and collectively working to improve the livelihood of the community as a whole. It promotes the social values of being selfless and fighting for the entire society. Because we are humans and have the spirit of humanity, protests still exists today because we do have common problems that affect everyone in the society and it is upon us to collectively join forces in order to get these problems address (Juris, 2015). For example, in the march for our lives protests that took place in March 24th 2019, people joined forces to protest against gun violence. The people were feeling unsafe which they all shared and feared. Therefore, since they had a common problem, they therefore began protesting for a safer life by putting to an end to gun violence. This shows signs of care and looking out for each other. It is an important value that promote togetherness. Acting together brings higher chances of getting the issue addressed. It promotes our cultural value of collaboratively acting together for the benefit of the entire society.
Questioning the role of events
However, protests can be questionable in terms of its effectiveness. Protests sometimes tend to be triggered by politicians for their own selfish gains. Some politician tend to misuse protest just to gain popularity and sell their political aspirations. Questions arises in the genuineness of the protests. Some protests tend to be faked and significantly influenced by politics. Protests are meant to help solve a problem to a common society. Moreover, protests can turn out to be chaos rather than raising awareness (Hill, Canniford, & Millward, 2018). Protests can diminish cultural values by igniting fights and destructions. It can also influence one’s social life to embrace violence and disruption in the society. Protests should be peaceful and having a purpose for it to be effective (Kaun, 2017). Protests and marches can be discouraging suppose it appears like changes are not being implemented. The myth that exists that protests causes immediate cause of action that will address the situation instantly. But in real sense, changes can take longer even up to generations.
Conclusion
To sum it, protest and marches have been renowned as big contributors to political participation as well as cultural transformation and also value systems. Protests contributes to both national and transnational civil society. Social change has been trigger by protests. Protest remain relevant up to date due to various reasons. In the contemporary society, it is noteworthy that the government, non-governmental organizations, businesses, individuals, groups and the society at large have turned to strategic planning of events as a way to maximize positive impacts effect for the development purposes. Protest have been considered to be a very important event especially in shaping political agendas and policies which tend to influence the cultural and social life of the people. The usage of protests and marches is very essential in cultural and social development. These types of events are extremely required in the current society. We can lack a platform or ways of restoring our cultural values. Therefore, protests act as an effective tool for reconstructing our cultural values and standing up to protect it. Participation in protests helps in raising awareness and making individuals to know important issues that are vital in making people to learn to fight for their rights and advocate for their freedom. Protest acts as a life hack that influences people’s social life. Protests assists in building social platforms for individuals to establish relationships as well as designing plans and strategies for addressing their issues. This creates a sense of teamwork and promotes the spirit of teamwork among individuals which is vital in one’s social life. However, protests can be detrimental to one’s social life as it can ignite a sense of disobedience and violence.