2021 Volume 20 Pages 66-76
This paper focuses on the author’s process of organizing grassroot movements in the 2010s and examines achievements of this process. During the 2010s, protest rallies were often held against the government, especially on nuclear and national security policies. In organizing movements, the author referred to the thoughts of John Dewey, an American philosopher, who defined democracy not only as a government system but also as a way of communication in everyday life. If we view democracy as indirect democracy, every voter is too microscopic to recognize his or her significance. In contrast, Dewey put emphasis on the process of democracy and redefined democracy as enrichment of one’s own life-experience by communicating with others.
This idea provided the author with great inspiration in organizing participants. Most established grassroot movements set clear goals to organize people. In this way, however, people’s participation tends to become subordinate to the goals and each individual loses the reason to participate. To solve this problem, grassroot movements need to reconstruct their methods by focusing on each participant’s thoughts and expression. This paper focuses on how the author has developed her thoughts and has organized movements.
