Journal article
Buckets of Resistance: Standards and the Effectiveness of Citizen Science
Science, technology, & human values, v 35(2), 244
01 Mar 2010
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
In light of arguments that citizen science has the potential to make environmental knowledge and policy more robust and democratic, this article inquires into the factors that shape the ability of citizen science to actually influence scientists and decision makers. Using the case of community-based air toxics monitoring with ‘‘buckets,’’ it argues that citizen science’s effectiveness is significantly influenced by standards and standardized practices. It demonstrates that, on one hand, standards serve a boundary-bridging function that affords bucket monitoring data a crucial measure of legitimacy among experts. On the other hand, standards simultaneously serve a boundary-policing function, allowing experts to dismiss bucket data as irrelevant to the central project of air quality assessment. The article thus calls attention to standard setting as an important site of intervention for citizen science-based efforts to democratize science and policy.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Buckets of Resistance: Standards and the Effectiveness of Citizen Science
- Creators
- Gwen Ottinger - Science History Institute
- Publication Details
- Science, technology, & human values, v 35(2), 244
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Politics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000274316700004
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-76249089186
- Other Identifier
- 991021863493704721
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Web of Science research areas
- Social Issues