30.06.2025 | 10.00h-11.30h
The talk mainly relies on my current research and co-leader role in the citizen science (CS) module within the EU funded OBAMA next project (2022-2027, https://obama-next.eu/project/), which is aimed at delivering a toolbox for monitoring marine biodiversity and habitats in support of evidence-based decision making at local and EU level.
By drawing on the case of CS in environmental-marine sciences, the emphasis is on the role of technology (dedicated webs, apps, online platforms to collect/gather CS data) and current data practices in CS projects in these fields to extrapolate further ethical and epistemological considerations.
Namely, whether and how enhanced digital tools, data governance frameworks, and data validation techniques can help advancing democracy and lay citizen participation by promoting long-term public engagement, literacy, or awareness of scientific-ecological challenges together with scientific rigor.
The potential and current limitations of CS as a science mode and CS data for systematic use in scientific knowledge production and evidence-based policy are discussed in relation to the possibility of rethinking the CS ideal for the digital era: by incorporating more explicit both democratic and data-intensive concerns.
To end, reflections on how a valid CS ideal across the sciences should look like are offered by also referring to how CS is currently practiced in other disciplinary fields (social sciences, participatory design, AI ethics by value-sensitive design). Here, further insights come from my past work as responsible of the stakeholder engagement activities within the SammenOmDemens project (2020-2023), where an AI-based tracking app targeting vulnerable citizens with dementia was co-designed by engaging stakeholders and the local community in a Danish municipality.