IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v6y2020i1d10.1057_s41599-020-0471-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-020-0471-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-020-0471-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong, Yoorim, 2018. "How the discussion on a contested technology in Twitter changes: Semantic network analysis of tweets about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology," 22nd ITS Biennial Conference, Seoul 2018. Beyond the boundaries: Challenges for business, policy and society 190383, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    2. Stephen Woroniecki, 2019. "Enabling Environments? Examining Social Co-Benefits of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation to Climate Change in Sri Lanka," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, February.
    3. John R. Taylor & Mamatha Hanumappa & Lara Miller & Brendan Shane & Matthew L. Richardson, 2021. "Facilitating Multifunctional Green Infrastructure Planning in Washington, DC through a Tableau Interface," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-20, July.
    4. Karimi, Azadeh & Yazdandad, Hossein & Fagerholm, Nora, 2020. "Evaluating social perceptions of ecosystem services, biodiversity, and land management: Trade-offs, synergies and implications for landscape planning and management," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    5. Hatsue Koizumi & Hiromi Yamashita, 2021. "Deficit Lay or Deficit Expert: How Do “Experts†in Environmental Projects Perceive Lay People and Lay Knowledge?," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    6. Kubiszewski, Ida & Concollato, Luke & Costanza, Robert & Stern, David I., 2023. "Changes in authorship, networks, and research topics in ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Boeing, Geoff, 2017. "Methods and Measures for Analyzing Complex Street Networks and Urban Form," SocArXiv 93h82, Center for Open Science.
    8. Worthington, Thomas A. & Worthington, Ian & Vaughan, Ian P. & Ormerod, Steve J. & Durance, Isabelle, 2020. "Testing the ecosystem service cascade framework for Atlantic salmon," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    9. Martínez-Paz, José Miguel & Banos-González, Isabel & Martínez-Fernández, Julia & Esteve-Selma, Miguel Ángel, 2019. "Assessment of management measures for the conservation of traditional irrigated lands: The case of the Huerta of Murcia (Spain)," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 382-391.
    10. Andersson, Erik & Tengö, Maria & McPhearson, Timon & Kremer, Peleg, 2015. "Cultural ecosystem services as a gateway for improving urban sustainability," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 165-168.
    11. Muhammad Mohsin & Yin Hengbin & Zhang Luyao & Li Rui & Qian Chong & Ana Mehak, 2022. "An Application of Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis for Risk Prioritization and Management: A Case Study of the Fisheries Sector in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-21, July.
    12. Esther Sanyé-Mengual & Kathrin Specht & Jan Vávra & Martina Artmann & Francesco Orsini & Giorgio Gianquinto, 2020. "Ecosystem Services of Urban Agriculture: Perceptions of Project Leaders, Stakeholders and the General Public," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-23, December.
    13. Mei-Fang Fan, 2021. "Indigenous participation and knowledge justice in deliberative systems: Flooding and wild creek remediation controversies in Taiwan," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(7), pages 1492-1510, November.
    14. Valentine Seymour & Mike King & Roberta Antonaci, 2020. "Exploring those characteristics which may help to foster and support people’s social-ecological resilience: an environmental volunteering case study," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 10(4), pages 438-456, December.
    15. Rachel Pateman & Heidi Tuhkanen & Steve Cinderby, 2021. "Citizen Science and the Sustainable Development Goals in Low and Middle Income Country Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-24, August.
    16. Nur Khairlida Muhamad Khair & Khai Ern Lee & Mazlin Mokhtar, 2020. "Sustainable City and Community Empowerment through the Implementation of Community-Based Monitoring: A Conceptual Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-16, November.
    17. Rebecca C. Jordan & Amanda E. Sorensen & Dawn Biehler & Sacoby Wilson & Shannon LaDeau, 2019. "Citizen science and civic ecology: merging paths to stewardship," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(1), pages 133-143, March.
    18. Dennis, Matthew & James, Philip, 2017. "Ecosystem services of collectively managed urban gardens: Exploring factors affecting synergies and trade-offs at the site level," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 26(PA), pages 17-26.
    19. Ángela Lara & Leandro del Moral, 2022. "Nature-Based Solutions to Hydro-Climatic Risks: Barriers and Triggers for Their Implementation in Seville (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-25, June.
    20. Tae Kyung Yoon & Seongjun Kim & Takako Takano & Sun-Jin Yun & Yowhan Son, 2016. "Contributing to Sustainability Education of East Asian University Students through a Field Trip Experience: A Social-Ecological Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-19, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:6:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-0471-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.