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Citizen Science? Lay Participation from Research Science to Regulatory Decisions

Fri, September 1, 4:00 to 5:30pm, Sheraton Boston, Floor: 3, Beacon H

Abstract

For ages, scientists have engaged lay persons as their extended sensors. Recently, such lay participation in scientific projects has reached a new height. Mediated by information technologies, scientists are now able to collect and analyze enormous amount of data, and crank out papers in an unprecedented speed. “Citizen science” is understood as a method for utilizing surplus cognitive power, which has proven its productivity in the economy of academic research.

Others perceive “citizen science” as ways to democratize science: citizen scientists do not limit their roles to carrying out designated tasks but step up to contribute to the agenda setting and the design of research projects; citizen scientists may also initiate projects in order to answer questions that have regulatory consequences.

Within research science, the recent rise of citizen science destabilizes the boundary between certified and non-certified experts. While not everyone aspires for a more democratized republic of science, the connection between certification and authority is more likely to be reinforced in regulatory science to exclude lay participation.

In these different ideas of “citizen science,” the relationship between scientists and lay experts vary, from collaborative to competitive, or from disciplining to empowering. The term “citizen science” is inevitably confusing as each project may carry its own image of “citizens” in a given politics.

This paper builds a typology of “citizen science” by looking at the different politics in self-claimed citizen science projects, their definition of “citizen,” their reasons to include lay participants, their practices and their purpose of doing science.

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