Towards a citizen social science methodology: examining cultural and social practices of citizen science research

In recent years, scholars from the social science and humanities got increasingly engaged in the field of Citizen Science (CS), which originally has been a domain of the natural sciences. We understand this turn towards a Citizen Social Science (CSS) as an invitation to citizens to participate and collaborate in potentially all phases of the research process by putting the (local) communities needs and concerns in the center.
On the one hand, a shift towards social issues unfolds epistemological questions and controversies of what citizen science is held to be on a conceptual level (Science & Technology Studies, 2019; Strasser et al. 2019). On the other hand, by expanding the scope of citizen science to social sciences there are different points to be taken into consideration on the practical level while co-designing a CSS project.
CSS can be characterized as a genuinely transdisciplinary science. Co-creation, co-production, and co-dissemination is dedicated to establish a partnership of equals between science and practice. Therefore participatory CSS engages with current discourses on political participation in democratic societies. The equality of the structural perspectives of science and social practice in the research process could lead to different, new knowledge about social reality because of its social significance. Central dimensions of citizen science such as inclusion, contribution, and reciprocity, must be supplemented with further concepts such as responsibility, transparency, mutual trust and research ethics.
This session is explicitly dedicated to pinpoint such specificities of an underdeveloped Citizen Social Science epistemology, as well as, the potentials and boundaries of a CSS methodology. Moreover, it brings together new empirical cases and theoretical understandings of the social and cultural aspects of this diverse field of CSS. The discussion of this methodological reconfiguration aims to contribute to both the general debate about citizen science and participatory research approaches that has been intensified in recent years in the social sciences.
The proposed session will be organized as a ‘presentations session’ that brings together four papers á 10 minutes, followed by a discussion with the audience moderated by the session organizers.