A Tale of Two Publics: Constructing Credible Data in Alberta, Canada

• In Event: Citizen Science, Law and Policy - I

Abstract

The Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, Canada is currently the largest scale industrial project in the world by land cover, and byproducts of oil extraction processes have resulted in extensive environmental contamination. The effects of this contamination have been difficult to measure and have been fiercely contested in the media and in court. One of the public reactions to regulatory delays and a legal stalemate over what constitutes ‘credible’ data has been a rise in public participation in citizen science projects, as people seize the opportunity to influence policymakers by producing scientific data that can be used as evidence in court. Public participation in environmental monitoring projects can have multiple motivations: some aim to halt the government support of petrochemical innovation in the region and others endorse it. This paper draws on two case studies to examine how citizen scientists innovate methodologically—through their collection and interpretation of data—in order to prompt reconsideration of existing regulatory standards. The first case study follows an environmental monitoring program developed by two First Nations communities to produce evidence of contamination that can be considered legitimate data. The second case study analyzes citizen scientists collecting data through the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute’s NatureLynx app. Drawing on qualitative research, I examine shifting concepts of expertise and disinterestedness through a focus on the mechanisms through which data attains the status of evidence. This paper contributes to STS scholarship on legitimation practices in citizen science, the politics of measurement, and the valuation of non-expert knowledge.

Author

• Sarah Blacker, Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University of Munich