Citizen Humanities

Abstract

Citizen humanities is the term for citizen ‘science’ in the humanities. It has a long tradition and, since the object of investigation is human culture, raises questions about values, cultural significance, and deeper meaning of phenomena related to human culture.The development of digital technologies not only led to the emergence of digital humanities but also to new ways of involving citizens in the activities of cultural heritage institutions and academic research. Participants’ contributions to academic research and to the preservation of cultural heritage range from uncovering treasures hidden in archives and digital environments to tapping local knowledge. Their tasks have included tagging, transcribing, or cataloguing artefacts, through which they acquire specialist knowledge and competences, while assisting scholars and researchers to gain new insights. Challenges in the citizen humanities include biases, participant training and retention, as well as the advancement of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence.Citizen humanities can combine topical issues in society with academic knowledge, demonstrate the relevance of the humanities for society, and establish a direct link to its members. In addition to the advancement of knowledge, the citizen humanities can unlock the potential of embedded, diverse, and culturally sensitive knowledge and play a crucial role in preserving and enriching cultural heritage.

Why and how is the Zentralbibliothek Zürich involved in citizen science?

“…Opportunities particularly arise from the local focus of the Turicensia, as it is motivating to citizen scientists that they can share their specific local knowledge, make it available to research, and feel recognized for their work [7]. With high-level digitization, the ZB allows citizen scientists…”

Conceptualising the Link between Citizen Science and Climate Governance: A Systematic Review

“…With respect to the sharp presence of social and psychological issues in the selected corpus, Tauginiené and colleagues found that, albeit with a still marginal place within the CS framework, social sciences and humanities are becoming more prominent, especially regarding projects addressing serious problems such as climate change [152]. Social sciences could help to undertake a "co-reflexive process", providing theoretical lenses, concepts and methodologies to address social barriers to participation and leverage the potential of multiple cultural perspectives, context-specific knowledge systems and embodied experience [147,152,153]. They could also help us to understand people's motivation, maintain engagement and guide learning processes [152].…”

Integrated, Coordinated, Open, and Networked (ICON) Scientific and Societal Relevance

“…Scientists are generally not trained in incorporating citizen science effectively (Buytaert et al., 2014). This divide can be seen even more clearly in social science and humanities, where there are no standardized procedures to incorporate citizens into the research (Albert et al., 2021; Heinisch et al., 2021). The lack of coordination presents an opportunity for professional organizations across disciplines to define what characterizes citizen science, develop protocols for implementing it in research, and provide opportunities for training (Lorke et al., 2019).…”