Book chapter
Citizen science
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media
2021
Abstract
This entry examines two traditions of citizen science. One, tracing its origins to amateur naturalism, involves 'lay' volunteers in projects designed by credentialed scientists with the goal of advancing basic knowledge. The second is driven by community groups organized to solve local problems, who see value in creating a quantitative basis for their local knowledge. This second form of citizen science, which may also be referred to as 'civic science', 'community science', and 'participatory action research', among other designations, exemplifies the idea of citizen media and will be the focus of this entry. Through the collection of monitoring, health and visual data, participants give new meaning and visibility to their experiences as part of their quest for social change. Drawing on my own research on air monitoring by communities at the fencelines of industrial facilities, as well as case studies from literature at the intersection of environmental justice and science and technology studies, I will demonstrate that social movement-based forms of citizen science are widely misunderstood by members of the scientific and regulatory communities, who attempt to array activities from traditions of citizen science on a single spectrum. By reducing grassroots efforts to their contributions to scientific knowledge, scientists undercut the emancipatory intent of social movement-based citizen science. In their misrecognition of grassroots efforts, we see the same patterns of appropriation encountered by other kinds of citizen media.
Citizen science refers to a phenomenon whereby individuals without formal credentials in science participate in activities typically understood as integral to the creation of scientific knowledge. Understanding citizen science as citizen media requires, first, understanding science as a medium of expression and representation and, second, distinguishing citizen science activities which merely harness volunteer labour from those which express a critical consciousness about science and scientific institutions. One classic example of citizen science in the spirit of citizen media is the bucket brigade, a strategy for quantifying air pollution that has been used in grassroots environmental campaigns all over the world. Using alternative methods, social movement-based citizen scientists take pains to establish the credibility of their data to sceptical audiences. Like other forms of citizen media, social movement-based citizen science is typically conducted outside mainstream institutions, although it takes place in a variety of other social formations.
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Details
- Title
- Citizen science
- Creators
- Gwen Ottinger
- Contributors
- Mona Baker (Editor)Bolette B. Blaagaard (Editor)Henry Jones (Editor)Luis Pérez-González (Editor)
- Publication Details
- The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Edition
- 1
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Politics; Center for Public Policy
- Other Identifier
- 991021863131504721