Abstract
This paper reported a grass-roots activity of screening a documentary film named ‘Himeyuri' at Matsue city, Shimane prefecture, Japan in 2008 and discussed it depending on the concepts of ‘wildfire activities' and ‘stigmergy.' The activity was initiated by Mr. T who had been asked to show the film by his friend. A group of people he organized to achieve the goal did not only show it but also run an attractive exhibition on the film and furnished financial assistance for a high school in Shimane prefecture to screen it. The team scattered when all activities above were finished, but these activities triggered new screening activities or relevant activities.
A concept of networking that has been used so far in the analysis of grass-roots activities is not taken as appropriate because the activities often change membership but spread like a wildfire. Engeström (2008) conceptualized such activities as ‘wildfire activities,' which pop up in unexpected locations at unexpected times and expand very rapidly. The wildfire activities are maintained and expanded by ‘stigmergy' that is a mechanism of spontaneous, indirect coordination between agents or actions, where the trace left in the environment by an action stimulates the performance of a subsequent action, by the same or different agent. The concept of stigmergy makes it possible to understand the process of grass-roots activities in which complicated but sophisticated cooperation is achieved without prior organizing and planning.
We discussed the grass-roots activities of screening as following: (1) Meaning of screening was revised by the activity and the revised meaning became a trigger of a new activity as a trace of the previous activity; (2) Verbal communication through an electronic mailing list facilitated participation of new members and also development of activities; and (3) In addition to an electronic communication, face-to-face communication enhanced cohesion of participants and promoted goal attainment.
