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Short Abstract

Based on specific participatory collection data, we show how citizen scientists, by situating natural-cultural heritage objects within historical and contemporary contexts, can connect individual and collective histories to global crises as a basis for the reflection of sustainable futures.

Abstract

Our existentially threatened present is shaped by planetary crises and local vulnerabilities at political, societal, and ecological levels. Transdisciplinary participatory collections that connect historical and cultural heritage with local experiences and memories can generate crucial knowledge for understanding ongoing environmental change.

Drawing on the data of a Franco-German participatory collection on the “Anthropocene”, we show how citizen scientists situate natural-cultural heritage objects within both historical and contemporary contexts, opening new pathways for rethinking the role of natural history museums in shaping sustainable futures. These objects, not the typical objects for natural history collections, reveal how political, ecological, and economic entanglements are inscribed in material cultures. Through the act of selecting and contextualizing their own objects, citizens locate their lifeworlds within the tension between local experience and global crisis. Different generations participate, and exchange their perspectives on these changes.

The collected objects (e.g. everyday objects or photos from personal archives) not only expose these entanglements but also connect personal and collective histories to global dynamics. In doing so, they bring marginalized perspectives to the fore and position citizen science as a key instrument for questioning power relations and redistributing knowledge. For natural history museums—often shaped by colonial, extractivist, and elitist practices—citizen participation opens new spaces for negotiation and collaboration. Engaging today with objects from the past that resist clear classification between nature and culture can help to understand the intertwined challenges of our present and foster intergenerational dialogue.