Constructing Knowledge in Citizen Science Projects: On Amateurs’ Sensibilities and Practices

• In Event: Citizen Science I: Co-Constructing Citizen Science

Abstract

This presentation explores the sociomaterial construction of scientific knowledge in the context of citizen science. It examines the relationship between amateurs and the materiality of the specimens they are working with while producing naturalist knowledge. Based on observations and interviews with individuals working on collections housed at Montreal’s Biodiversity Centre, we explore amateurs’ sensibilities to the material and physical arrangements of the collections they are contributing to. In one case, volunteers are working to digitize herbariums sheets. In the other, amateur mycologists collect, identify and classify mushroom species for the Fungarium collection. In comparing these two situations, we highlight several shared characteristics, as well as some notable differences. In both cases, disciplinary contexts and procedures, such as standards for the preparation, presentation and classification of collection specimens, influence daily practices. However, different criteria are foregrounded in each situation – visual beauty, and senses of touch, smell and taste all enter into the evaluation and treatment of specimens, but in different ways for plants and for mushrooms. At the same time, in the context of citizen science, the amateurs’ attachments to their specimens also affect the way they relate to their work on the collections, thus helping rearticulate and reshape practices and protocols. New, informal and local standards emerge as different measuring sticks are applied to gauge the value of individual specimens. This presentation builds on STS scholarship on the sociomaterial dimensions of knowledge construction. Its comparative perspective sheds light on the complex relationships between epistemological, relational, affective (aesthetic) and practical considerations.

Authors

• Lorna Heaton, Université De Montréal

• Florence Millerand, Universite du Quebec a Montreal - UQAM