Coalition form and mobilization effectiveness in local social movements

Little has been written on the form that coalitions take in social movements. Three months of fieldwork by a five-person team documented the population of social movement events (SMEs) across seven movements in a Southwestern city. We investigated the process and form that led to these events at the interorganizational level. Three different coalition forms, as well as single social movement organizations (SMOs) acting alone, organized the SMEs. The "network invocation" form-a single SMO making strategic and framing decisions while encouraging other SMOs in its network to mobilize participants-was significantly more effective than other forms at mobilizing attendance at events.