Presentation short abstract

Drawing from ethnographic data collected in the project ERICA in Konin, Corleto Perticara and Tarragona, we argue that the principles of citizen science help to contextualize participatory environmental monitoring into the legacies, politics and cultural and social specificities of local sites.

Presentation long abstract

The project “ERICA: Environmental Monitoring through Civic Engagement” develops a new framework aimed at enhancing citizens’ environmental awareness and their capacity to conduct independent environmental monitoring. The project uses co-production as a research practice to uncover local power relations, environmental conflicts and forms of civic engagement.

In our paper we would like to examine how ERICA developed in partners’ project sites, all of which are sites of fossil fuel extraction. However, as different kinds of fossil fuels are extracted in each site, different legacies of citizen science and conflicts with the company mark the local history of each place, we adapted the framework for environmental monitoring to each context. This has been achieved through co-creation as a research method. Based on this experience, we propose to discuss: 1) how different social, political, and cultural dynamics influenced the co-creation process to result in a particular design and implementation of ERICA’s framework for participatory environmental monitoring; 2) how the politics and legacies of local conflicts with the company influenced the quality of engagement in citizen science; and 3) how (in)visibility of environmental harms shape actions focused on civic environmental monitoring.

Drawing from ethnographic data collected through focus group interviews in Konin, Corleto Perticara and Tarragona, we argue that the principles of citizen science help to contextualize participatory environmental monitoring into the histories, legacies, politics and cultural and social specificities of the local site.