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Short abstract:

Citizen science approaches to scientific research often fail to adequately consider local research priorities. As counter to dominant conceptions of citizen science, this presentation outlines an ongoing microplastics monitoring collaboration that forefronts community research sovereignty.

Long abstract:

Citizen science approaches to environmental monitoring often prioritize normative research ethics throughout the research process. Indeed, many citizen science endeavors seek to assimilate citizen researchers into existing research standards and practices, often with a business-as-usual approach to leadership in research planning, results analysis, and dissemination. This formula is relatively non-disruptive to dominant scientific norms but does not attend to specific place-based research priorities. For many Indigenous communities in particular, outside researchers have been a vector for settler violence, where data extraction and parachute research continue to reproduce the colonial desire for settler access to Indigenous lands.

The presentation will discuss an ongoing marine microplastic monitoring collaboration that takes place in Nunatsiavut (the autonomous Inuit land claim area in Labrador, Canada) in collaboration with the Nunatsiavut Government (NG). As a counter to dominant science articulations of citizen participation in research processes, this presentation will outline how our study disrupts academic conceptions of access and skill through a community-centered, rights-based research approach. The presentation will contrast our rights-based approach with dominant modes of community-based research that often ignore or misinterpret community articulations of research goals, best practices, and consent. Further, we will discuss how our research design and community-based methods prioritize place-based conceptions of microplastic pollution to meet specific community-determined research objectives and forefront research sovereignty in Nunatsiavut. Lastly, the presentation troubles common conceptions of citizen science by discussing how a rights-based approach inherently moves power out of academia and into community.