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Short Abstract

This paper describes the results of a project that worked with a local environmental group in the UK to co-design citizen-social-science research. The project provided actionable evidence about how to increase the accessibility of several community circular economy activities.

Abstract

This paper presents the results from ‘Waste-free Wantage’, a collaboration between the University of Nottingham and Sustainable Wantage (a local environmental group in the town of Wantage, UK). The project has two key aims: 1) to co-design applied citizen-social-science research to investigate barriers to joining community circular economy initiatives; and 2) to strengthen the capacity of community members to design and carry out similar social science research projects in the future.

Volunteer citizen scientists are actively engaged in multiple stages of the project including (i) co-design workshops to set the project focus and aims; (ii) training for social science methods; (iii) development and testing of data-collection instruments (including surveys, focus groups, and think aloud protocols); (iv) data collection; (v) data analysis and co-evaluation; and (vi) sharing results with local authorities and other community environmental groups.

Activities in the project are organised around three studies, each investigating a different community circular economy initiative (a library of things, a refill shop, and a clothes swap event). In addition to presenting results from these studies, this paper also reflects on broader lessons from co-creating citizen-social-science and discusses the role of citizen science in advancing a just transition to a circular economy.