- Convenors:
-
Tiina Äikäs
(University of Oulu)
Marika Hyttinen (University of Oulu)
Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto (University of Turku)
Oula Seitsonen (University of Oulu Clare Hall, University of Cambridge)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract
Heritage is still often defined by heritage authorities. We ask whether citizens can be encouraged to join in the heritage discourse by the means of citizen science and how we can tackle the questions of anonymity and polyphony especially when talking about ambivalent heritage.
Description
A dictionary definition for ambivalence sees it as simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward an object, person, or action. By using the concept ambivalent heritage, we put the emphasis on different ways to approach, use and value heritage, and the sometimes conflicting and confusing attitudes on how to use and preserve heritage sites. Hence the focus is not on the administrative status of the sites but on the experiences of users and visitors. In ambivalent heritage, a range of feelings and affective meanings are present at the same time. It produces situations in which parties involved in the heritagization processes become perplexed by complex questions of ‘how to interpret the past, by whom, and for what purposes.’
We encourage to ponder upon who are the people contributing to citizen science and what motivates them to participate? Does citizen science attract the active few or may it reach a wider audience offering channels to ordinary people and those who do not identify as heritage activists? What kinds of means for participation can digital channels offer? We also wish to discuss the questions of anonymity and research ethics. Especially when discussing unofficial use of heritage and difficult or dark histories, people often wish to remain anonymous. How do we reach for these “hidden” actors and how can we offer them guarantee anonymity? We invite scholars to introduce new projects and to share experience of both successful and challenging attempts to encourage citizens to participate in their research.
Accepted papers
Short Abstract
The paper presents an impersonation game, the Talking Buildings, used for community engagement in participatory processes related to heritage buildings. Illustrating a Zurich case study, the discussion extends to the role of informal self-reflective accounts in the negotiations of heritage value.
Abstract
The paper introduces a playful citizen science framework, the Talking Buildings <talkingbuildings.net>, inspired by Bruno Latour’s actor-network-theory (ANT) and based on NetHood’s participatory design methodologies.
This impersonation game invites people to observe and connect with a heritage building or with its parts of their particular interest and attachment, to tell stories from the building’s perspective and create their own building accounts. Some initial experiments show that Talking Buildings, being lively and stimulating, increases the chances of participation, but also introduces a new research question in citizen science: to what extent does the impersonation of nonhuman elements enhance the quality of participatory processes?
An illustrating case study may be discussed as ambivalent heritage. The largest cooperative housing (ABZ) in Zurich is facing a crucial challenge generated by demanding urban development: to demolish one of its historic settlements (Seebahnhöfe), and replace it with modern and more efficient buildings, a process involving residents’ displacement and the dismantling of a long-term formed community. As the cooperative is an association of members including the settlement’s current residents, what is the meaning of heritage and to whom belongs the decision about its value in this case? The Talking Buildings focuses on the experiences of long-term residents, visitors and more recent inhabitants of the buildings declared for temporary use, in a self-reflective way allowing participants to be more than contributors of data and personal impressions. An interesting discussion provides the transition from such an informal to a more formal citizen science process.
Short Abstract
This paper introduces a project using mobile technology, developed at the University of Jyväskylä, for collecting and analyzing experiential knowledge anonymously. We will discuss the possibilities of the technology for various research questions, including those concerning ambivalent heritage.
Abstract
The Finnish Digital Citizen Science Center is a multidisciplinary project including four faculties at the University of Jyväskylä and the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus (University of Helsinki). It includes four subprojects from the fields of Natural Sciences, Health Sciences, Educational Sciences and Humanities.
This presentation introduces the Citizen Humanities subproject and discusses the use and possibilities of digital and mobile technology Research for JYU Mobile (RFJM) which has been developed at the University of Jyväskylä. The subproject is currently using the technology for collecting interviews focused on nature experiences. The collection happens via a mobile application and the interviews are transcribed by AI. Also, the process of analysis is automated. Instead of close reading the transcripts, the researchers pose questions for AI which interprets the research material. Our aim is to explore an automated research process and test a method which guarantees full anonymity for the interviewees.
As the process differs greatly from usual ways of collecting experiential knowledge in our own field, ethnology, and also in other fields of cultural studies, the process raises many questions but also creates possibilities for Citizen Science. The knowledge this project produces about the automated and anonymized method can be applied in various fields and research questions, including those concerning ambivalent heritage.
Short Abstract
Factory smokestacks are often seen as the material remains of work history and local identity, or parts of dangerous urban wasteland. In our project Smokestack memories, we asked citizens to use an online map for sharing their photos and memories of smokestacks.
Abstract
Factory smokestacks are often seen as an ambivalent part of cultural heritage. They have been demolished on the grounds of safety risks and urban development. On the other hand, they can be important monuments to local working history and the local identity tied to it. In our project Smokestack Memories (2021-2023), we collected photos and memories related to factory smokestacks using an online map. People were able to add map points and comment on each other's points. The map served as research material, and a database and discussion platform for those interested in the topic. In our study, we use the map to examine the meanings people attach to factory smokestacks. The map allows us to access not only work-related memories, which are often the focus of interviews, but also memories related to personal history, such as childhood, or more random encounters with smokestacks.
Short Abstract
Łomża Scientific Society translates Jewish memorial books (Pinkasim) and engages Catholic seniors to document environmental changes in the same locations. This citizen science approach transforms contested Polish-Jewish heritage into collaborative knowledge production about shared landscapes.
Abstract
The Łomża region before 1939 was inhabited by Polish and Jewish communities. Łomża Scientific Society translates Pinkasim—Jewish memorial books containing everyday descriptions: local apple varieties, water mills, marketplaces. These concrete place descriptions became the starting point for the "Memory Maps" project.
The project engages Catholic parish senior groups in documenting these same places today. Seniors describe which orchards were cut for Via Baltica highway, where ponds dried, which plants disappeared after dairy farming intensification. They collect local plant names, regional fruit varieties, recall vanished wetlands.
The methodology combines Pinkasim texts, contemporary observations, historical maps, archival interviews, photographs. Biology students and researchers verify species, geography students with professors create GIS maps, historians contextualize changes. Seniors validate ecological data through decades of place-based knowledge. The project includes GIS training for local schools, transforming participants into knowledge creators with transferable skills.
This methodology shifts heritage work from ownership disputes to empirical documentation. Residents of contested sites like Jedwabne (where Polish neighbors killed Jews in 1941) contribute environmental data without navigating identity politics. By tracking vanishing apple cultivars mentioned in both Pinkasim and seniors' accounts, the project creates botanical genealogies that bypass political ones.
The paper presents insights transferable to other post-conflict regions: how environmental documentation provides ethical entry points to contested memories, how skill-sharing creates stakeholder investment beyond participation, and how focusing on material change rather than narrative reconciliation enables communities to engage difficult pasts through concrete, collaborative action.
Short Abstract
20th century conflicts reshaped the Arctic, leaving lasting aviation legacies. This project uses archaeology, ethnography, and citizen science to document airfields, crash sites, and memories, combining local knowledge with research to map, preserve, and reinterpret Arctic aviation heritage.
Abstract
The 20th century conflicts transformed the circumpolar Arctic in profound ways, leaving behind extensive material and cultural legacies of military aviation and its infrastructure. This project investigates the traces of aviation to address: (1) what was the strategic and cultural role of military aviation in the Arctic; (2) what kinds of material remains persist in the landscape; and (3) how do these traces continue to connect people, places, and narratives across time and space. In most countries, recent past military aviation sites are not formally protected as heritage, yet they remain important reminders of the past for local communities. Local people often hold the most detailed knowledge of these places, which makes their perspectives essential for documentation and interpretation. To capture this knowledge, the project develops a participatory methodology that integrates archaeological fieldwork, ethnographic research, and online crowdsourcing. This approach supports the co-production of new insights by combining local grassroots information with the other approaches. Particular attention is given to alternative and underexplored perspectives on aviation heritage, such as extraordinary or supernatural experiences embedded in northern oral traditions. Planned outputs include a research database and an open-access participatory mapping platform that enables citizens to contribute site knowledge, helping to uncover undocumented features and overlooked narratives. By combining archaeological, geographical, and anthropological approaches with citizen science, the project advances research on Arctic aviation heritage, empowers local communities to sustain their transgenerational memory practices, and offers a transferable methodological template for other global contexts.