Daniel Dörler & Florian Heigl: What Is Citizen Science? A Reflection

This workshop aims at deepening the knowledge about citizen science in general and to widen the perspective on citizen science. Together we will explore how citizen science can be understood in different contexts and why it is challenging to reach a common understanding of citizen science. We will also talk about “quality” in citizen science and what it means for projects. After this workshop you will be aware that different concepts of citizen science exist and you will know which kind of characteristics are challenging in the “common” understanding of citizen science and what kind of questions arise when addressing these challenges. Furthermore, this will help you to identify areas of citizen science that need further investigations or discussions.

You have heard and learned a lot about citizen science in the past days. In this workshop we would like to challenge your understanding of citizen science. We present citizen science as a research concept still in the making. We want to show you different meanings of citizen science and open up new perspectives: perspectives of participants, of researchers and of platform coordinators. We discuss which characteristics could make a project a citizen science project and what is meant if people talk about quality in citizen science. What does quality mean in the context of citizen science? How can criteria for citizen science be a benefit for the citizen science community, and how can criteria be a barrier for innovation? You will experience the challenges of defining citizen science by taking different viewpoints and by discussing pros and cons of criteria for citizen science.

For further information about Florian Heigl and Daniel Dörler see the Speakers & trainers site.

Session: Parallel Workshops 4

Date: Wednesday, June 23rd