Engagement and Social Impact in Tech-Based Citizen Science Initiatives for Achieving the SDGs: A Systematic Literature Review with a Perspective on Complex Thinking

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed significant achievements and technological advances in citizen science (CS) projects; nevertheless, significant global challenges are present. Proof of this is in the joint efforts of international organizations to achieve the 2030 SDG agenda in a complex environment. Thus, UNESCO has recognized CS as being among the initiatives that could bridge the Science, Technology, and Innovation gap as a substantial resource, given its power to bring the general public closer together. Although tech-based CS projects keep rising, there is limited knowledge about which type of projects might allow participants to develop higher-order complex thinking skills. To that end, this study describes a systematic literature review (SLR) and analysis of 49 CS projects over the last 5 years concerning the technology utilized, the level of citizen involvement, and the intended social impact. The results of the analysis evidenced: (a) broad implementation in Europe on issues of the built environment, disaster risk, and environmental and animal monitoring; (b) prevalence of helix configurations other than the triple, quadruple, and quintuple helix innovation models; (c) a focus on technological developments to improve living conditions in cities; (d) an opportunity to develop applied native technologies; (e) limited development of participants’ complex thinking, when constrained to low levels of involvement; and (f) an opportunity to develop native technologies and promote a higher level of citizen participation, leading to more significant impact whilst developing complex thinking.

Technological Innovations for Citizen Environmental Participation: Case of Poland

“…These might be the reasons why NGOs reach out for easily accessible and low-cost solutions rather than develop tailored ones. As Jaskyte has already noticed, the main advantage of social media is that it does not generate high costs, which might be especially important for NGOs that do not have high budgets [36].We found only two examples of technologies that were developed locally, which does not satisfy the need of native solutions that Sanabria-Z et al call for [8]. The process of building technological solutions requires skills and financial resources that NGOs and grassroots movements are often lacking.…”

“…They believed that technology is offering many opportunities to improve the work in the third sector. For example, it facilitates collecting, aggregating, and processing data (8) and also enables the transfer of knowledge in a simple and transparent way for the receiver (8). The interviewees mentioned that technology, mainly social media, greatly facilitates communication and establishing cooperation with other entities (n = 5).…”

“…In Europe, tech-based citizen science projects are heavily implemented in topics relating to both the physical and natural environments, but as Sanabria-Z et al [8] pointed out, there is a great need for the development of native/in-house technologies. In our article, we first demonstrate the kinds of technological solutions that grassroots movements in Poland are using in general, then we focus on social activists' attitudes toward technology and citizen science as a social innovation, and finally we discuss how the existing technology can be used in managing citizen science projects.…”

Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Sense of Belonging in Higher Education for STEM Students in the United States and Mexico

“…Relationship development and learning can be affected by this lack of meaningful connection [10,32]. Concerning the aforementioned effect, using information and communications technology (ICT) to form links between people has been shown to have a positive effect on promoting and engaging a remote network of participation for teaching and learning through the citizen science approach [52].…”

Using YouTube to Increase Learning Motivation as a Resource for Learning Geography in the Digital Age

“…Explicitly, learning resources are components of the learning system that need to be developed. From this explanation, the development of learning resources is a necessity (Sanabria-Z et al, 2024).…”