Short Abstract

The qualitative study reveals the background, management, and consequences of responsive and response-able project coordination within Citizen Social Science, placing particular emphasis on the situated practices of knowledge production, caring strategies, and their implications for future projects.

Abstract

Good care and services of general interest, equal health opportunities in urban districts, social and cultural diversity in urban society, or collaborative research on social cohesion — Citizen Social Science projects are gaining increasing popularity. In contrast to Citizen Science projects situated in the natural sciences and often focused primarily on data collection, e.g. crowdsourcing, Citizen Social Science projects engage citizen scientists more deeply, challenging and decentering hierarchical and hegemonic ways of doing social science.

This article examines how different forms of knowledge and perspectives of diverse target groups and practitioners can be integrated into Citizen Social Science. It identifies challenges, conditions for success, and conceptual as well as methodological particularities from the perspectives of project coordinators. To this end, six practical cases were analyzed. Data was collected using guided expert interviews and a structured group discussion with Citizen Social Science project coordinators in Germany.

Drawing on Grounded Theory (Strauss and Corbin, 1990), the qualitative study reveals that Citizen Social Science coordinators perform Citizen Science as a responsive project situated between multiple horizons of expectation. Consequently, response-able practices, in the sense of Haraway (2016), shape every stage and dimension of Citizen Social Science projects — leading to ongoing project adaptation and the relational emergence of situated knowledge(s).

With this paper, we aim to illuminate the background, management, and consequences of such responsive and response-able project coordination, placing particular emphasis on the situated practices of knowledge production, caring strategies, and their implications for future Citizen Science projects.

References

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. M. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Sage Publications, Inc.