Localizing Science: Creating, Legitimizing, and Distributing Knowledge in the Public Sphere

• In Event: Real-World Experiments for Knowledge Production

Abstract

Traditional science has established and enforced standards of what can be accepted as valid knowledge, and so, in this blossoming scientific era, science is quickly becoming a boundary object crossing between the public and academic spheres. Despite this, the groups that can benefit most from participating in knowledge creation are often excluded. As Jason Coburn suggests in “Street Science”, traditional science practices fall short by not taking community voices into account, and as the concept of ‘citizen science’ gains popularity, and more groups, movements, and organizations look for ways to implement this community centered framework for knowledge production, the issue of legitimacy becomes magnified. Using interviews and participant observation, this project focuses on a case study of the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab, and aims to answer the question of how grassroots science centers can become a tool for communities to create, legitimize, and distribute knowledge amongst themselves.

Author

• Maya Sanders, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute