Mapping epistemic cultures and learning potential of participants in citizen science projects

Abstract

The ever-widening scope and range of global change and interconnected systemic risks arising from people-environment relationships (social-ecological risks) appears to be increasing concern among, and involvement of, citizens in an increasingly diversified number of citizen science projects responding to these risks. We examined the relationship between epistemic cultures in citizen science projects and learning potential related to matters of concern. We then developed a typology of purposes and a citizen science epistemic-cultures heuristic and mapped 56 projects in southern Africa using this framework. The purpose typology represents the range of knowledge-production purposes, ranging from laboratory science to social learning, whereas the epistemic-cultures typology is a relational representation of scientist and citizen participation and their approach to knowledge production. Results showed an iterative relationship between matters of fact and matters of concern across the projects; the nexus of citizens' engagement in knowledge-production activities varied. The knowledge-production purposes informed and shaped the epistemic cultures of all the sampled citizen science projects, which in turn influenced the potential for learning within each project. Through a historical review of 3 phases in a long-term river health-monitoring project, we found that it is possible to evolve the learning curve of citizen science projects. This evolution involved the development of scientific water monitoring tools, the parallel development of pedagogic practices supporting monitoring activities, and situated engagement around matters of concern within social activism leading to learning-led change. We conclude that such evolutionary processes serve to increase potential for learning and are necessary if citizen science is to contribute to wider restructuring of the epistemic culture of science under conditions of expanding social-ecological risk.

Introduction to the special section Moving from Citizen to Civic Science to Address Wicked Conservation Problems. Corrected by erratum 12844

“…They focus on whether the learning that takes place during the projects is, in effect, science‐driven or driven by what the authors term “matters of concern.” Vallabh et al. () argue that “science becomes a key feature of learning‐centered and ethically motivated civic practice for the common good” and that the output might be “social actions necessary for planetary stewardship and the common good as humanity responds to social‐ecological risk.”…”

Epistemic Cartography: Evaluating Net-Map as a Frontline Tool for Navigating Informal Knowledge Networks

“…Theorists from across the fields of sustainability transitions, pedagogy and complexity, respond by arguing for the need to take a networked view on the development and diffusion of competency at an individual and societal level (Carlsson & Stankiewicz, 1991;Reed et al, 2010;Kilelu et al, 2011;Goodyear & Carvalho, 2013;Lotz-Sisitka et al, 2015;Kelly, Bennet & Starasts, 2017;Wals et al, 2017). Concurrently, there is an increase in voices calling for more place-based approaches to learning which embrace the notion of learning through context-sensitive practice (Smith, 2002;Sobel, 2004;Gruenewald & Smith, 2014;Vallabh et al, 2016;Shannon & Galle, 2017). These place-based approaches, which use students' local community and environment as a starting point for learning, encourage academic achievement while developing a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens (Sobel, 2004).…”

The transgressive gardener : Cultivating learning-based transformations towards regenerative futures

“…We then adapted Jickling and Wals' [33] well-cited heuristic for classifying emancipatory and instrumental forms of learning within the sustainability context, drawing also on Dillon et al's [146] interpretation, and through iterative engagement with the selected papers, we identified and mapped out four orientations to climate change learning, namely: science-oriented [36,128,129,135,141,142,147], policy-oriented [136,137,139,140], organisational/management-oriented [35,138,[148][149][150]; and wider social transformation / transition orientations [38,40,48,80,[143][144][145][151][152][153][154][155]. This allowed us to position the papers (see Figure 1), within a 'force field' heuristic, whereby two dotted lines distinguish the field within which the center of gravity of each of the four orientations falls.…”

“…In such education and learning contexts, it is not possible to deal with 'facts only' [38,39]. This requires engaging more with 'matters of concern' [40] in more open-ended, political and value-laden ways in and amongst wider social movements and inter-sectional communities [see 41], in ways that are oriented towards 'deliberate transformation' [145]. Here ethics, decolonisation, well-being and sustainability become some of the orienting narratives for transformative learning.…”

“…Baker-Shelley et al [154] address this transformation in higher education from a whole system institutional approach and discuss the need for systemic change at different micro, meso and macro levels within academia. Jordan et al [155] emphasize the importance of collaborative science around local issues and engaging in iterative, collaborative, and adaptive learning, and Vallabh et al [40], articulate different 'epistemic cultures' required for citizen science education that embrace social learning and social justice paradigms.…”