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Citizen science in the social sciences and humanities: the power of interdisciplinarity

Author

Listed:
  • Loreta Tauginienė

    (Office of the Ombudsperson for Academic Ethics and Procedures)

  • Eglė Butkevičienė

    (Kaunas University of Technology)

  • Katrin Vohland

    (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin)

  • Barbara Heinisch

    (University of Vienna)

  • Maria Daskolia

    (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

  • Monika Suškevičs

    (Estonian University of Life Sciences)

  • Manuel Portela

    (Institute of New Imaging Technologies)

  • Bálint Balázs

    (Environmental Social Science Research Group—ESSRG)

  • Baiba Prūse

    (Institute for Environmental Solutions)

Abstract

Citizen science evolved through multiple disciplinary manifestations into a new field of study and a participatory method of enquiry. While most citizen science projects take place within problem-focused natural sciences, social sciences and humanities help understanding the human dimension and open a broad methodological spectrum for enriching scientific research with new approaches and for boosting public participation. In this paper, we use a meta-synthesis approach to explore how citizen science is practised in the so far less addressed social sciences and humanities by focusing on the role of the citizens, the goals and approaches of the projects, the tasks in which citizens are engaged and their gains across projects of diverse disciplinary background. Our findings indicate that social sciences are gaining more acknowledgment within interdisciplinary citizen science projects by addressing ‘wicked’ problems of human behaviour and agency, while humanities are in quest of a better-defined locus in citizen science. We conclude that social sciences and humanities still face considerable barriers to infiltrate citizen science; the payoffs are substantial and already rewarding for several subfields in social sciences and humanities.

Suggested Citation

  • Loreta Tauginienė & Eglė Butkevičienė & Katrin Vohland & Barbara Heinisch & Maria Daskolia & Monika Suškevičs & Manuel Portela & Bálint Balázs & Baiba Prūse, 2020. "Citizen science in the social sciences and humanities: the power of interdisciplinarity," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:6:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-0471-y
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-0471-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Krasny, Marianne E. & Russ, Alex & Tidball, Keith G. & Elmqvist, Thomas, 2014. "Civic ecology practices: Participatory approaches to generating and measuring ecosystem services in cities," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 177-186.
    2. Rolf Lidskog, 2008. "Scientised citizens and democratised science. Re-assessing the expert-lay divide," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1-2), pages 69-86, January.
    3. Mabon, Leslie & Kawabe, Midori, 2017. "Making sense of complexity in risk governance in post-disaster Fukushima fisheries: A scalar approach," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 173-183.
    4. Julián Vicens & Josep Perelló & Jordi Duch, 2018. "Citizen Social Lab: A digital platform for human behavior experimentation within a citizen science framework," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-20, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sasha Marie Woods & Maria Daskolia & Alexis Joly & Pierre Bonnet & Karen Soacha & Sonia Liñan & Tim Woods & Jaume Piera & Luigi Ceccaroni, 2022. "How Networks of Citizen Observatories Can Increase the Quality and Quantity of Citizen-Science-Generated Data Used to Monitor SDG Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Justus Henke, 2022. "Can Citizen Science in the Humanities and Social Sciences Deliver on the Sustainability Goals?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Raffael Heiss & Desirée Schmuck & Jörg Matthes & Carolin Eicher, 2021. "Citizen Science in Schools: Predictors and Outcomes of Participating in Voluntary Political Research," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    4. Isabelle Bonhoure & Anna Cigarini & Julián Vicens & Bàrbara Mitats & Josep Perelló, 2023. "Reformulating computational social science with citizen social science: the case of a community-based mental health care research," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Bianca Vienni-Baptista & María Goñi Mazzitelli & María Haydeé García Bravo & Inta Rivas Fauré & Daniel Felipe Marín-Vanegas & Cecilia Hidalgo, 2022. "Situated expertise in integration and implementation processes in Latin America," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Anna Berti Suman & Edwin Alblas, 2023. "Exploring Citizen Science over Time: Sensing, Technology and the Law," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, March.
    7. Fernando Almeida, 2022. "The Contribution of Local Agents and Citizens to Sustainable Development: The Portuguese Experience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, October.
    8. Jasmin Bhawra, 2022. "Decolonizing Digital Citizen Science: Applying the Bridge Framework for Climate Change Preparedness and Adaptation," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-14, April.
    9. Livia Fritz & Ulli Vilsmaier & Garance Clément & Laurie Daffe & Anna Pagani & Melissa Pang & Daniel Gatica-Perez & Vincent Kaufmann & Marie Santiago Delefosse & Claudia R. Binder, 2022. "Explore, engage, empower: methodological insights into a transformative mixed methods study tackling the COVID-19 lockdown," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Stefan Thomas & David Scheller & Susan Schröder, 2021. "Co-creation in citizen social science: the research forum as a methodological foundation for communication and participation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Claudia Göbel & Sylvi Mauermeister & Justus Henke, 2022. "Citizen Social Science in Germany—cooperation beyond invited and uninvited participation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.

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