Project Details
Projekt
The Evidence Culture of Citizen Science. Standardisation, Evaluation and Control of Participatory Research
Applicants
Professor Dr. Sascha Dickel; Dr. Andreas Wenninger
Subject Area
Sociological Theory
Empirical Social Research
Empirical Social Research
Term
from 2017 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 282210851
This project investigates contemporary practices of public participation in various stages of research, often labeled “Citizen Science”. In phase 1 of our research, we explored evidence practices in specific Citizen Science projects. We asked how these projects produce scientific credibility under the conditions of public participation. Our research indicated a phenomenon whereby evidence in Citizen Science is not only negotiated at the level of projects but increasingly also on an institutional level. In phase 2 we shift our research focus, asking: How is Citizen Science normalized? How and by whom are Citizen Science activities evaluated? How are standards controlled and enforced? We pursue a broad qualitative research approach, analyzing scientific publications, position papers and protocols, investigating technical procedures, digital tools and infrastructures, and participating in working groups, networks, meetings, and conferences. Additionally, we plan to conduct interviews and focus groups to validate our findings. This data will enable us to reconstruct how standards, evaluation practices and control mechanisms are established and justified (or rejected). The project seeks to uncover the evolving transdisciplinary evidence culture in Citizen Science; Which norms, practices, technologies and lines of conflict constitute this culture? Our research aims to understand how new institutional structures address the challenges of mass inclusion of amateurs in research. One line of research focuses on the ethnography of this emerging institutional culture; its networks, organizations and discourses. A second line of research focuses on practices of public presentation of Citizen Science and its resonance in academic science and science policy.By exploring how evidence practices are (re-)stabilized on a meta-level of knowledge politics, this research project contributes to a better understanding of contemporary evidence regimes in democratic knowledge societies. Our hypothesis: the more popular Citizen Science becomes and the more it destabilizes the established notion of science as an exclusive practice conducted by professionals, the more likely it is to conform to the norms of professional science.
DFG Programme
Research Units
