"You need a different way of thinking when it comes to citizen science." - Dr. Sforzi
Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma
This week, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Andrea Sforzi, a wildlife biologist, the director of the Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma (Maremma Natural History Museum), and an avid participant in citizen science initiatives throughout Europe and Italy.
Dr. Sforzi was involved in setting up the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) and was a member of the Board of Directors from 2014 to 2020. He has also played an essential role in coordinating Italy's National Citizen Science Conferences (2017 and 2021), creating a national network of citizen science resources (Citizen Science Italia (CSI) | CSI Facebook), and facilitating projects including X-Polli:Nation; BioBlitzes; Da Museo a Museo; Gatto Selvatico Italia; Schema Europeo per il Monitoraggio delle Farfalle; and Natura Sulle Mura through the Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma. Each of these projects aims to involve the public in science and enhance local biodiversity knowledge.
In a talk given at TedxManciano on March 19, 2017, Dr. Sforzi discusses how he first discovered citizen science. As a wildlife biologist, he felt that "something was missing" from his research because "the people were not connected" or involved in the process. He remarks: "we need to have more engagement of society in what we want to do to preserve the environment; we have no more time. We have to run."
At the Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma, Dr. Sforzi worked to make involvement with citizen science initiatives a key aspect of visitor's experiences. The museum itself—which I was fortunate enough to tour after my meeting with him—has its own Citizen Science Exhibit and actively provides the public with opportunities to be involved in the pursuit of environmental knowledge.
The Citizen Science Corner & 10 Principles of Citizen Science Exhibit
My conversation with Dr. Sforzi was eye-opening and expansive. We discussed some of the key challenges and barriers to citizen science, the nature of participatory projects in Italy and across Europe, and our hope that citizen science will one day be able to influence policy, encourage environmental awareness, and make science more accessible to the public.
The Challenge of Defining "Citizen Science"
In my Watson Fellowship Project Proposal, I contend that "science can be as simple as observation." While I still wholeheartedly believe this, my talk with Dr. Sforzi raised some interesting questions about the importance of defining citizen science in order to maximize its relevance for policy and research.
A Google Search provides a range of answers to the ostensibly simple question "What is Citizen Science?" According to the Oxford Language Dictionary, it is "the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by members of the general public, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists." Somewhat dissimilarly, Wikipedia states that citizen science is "scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur (or nonprofessional) scientists." According to the Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma's website, citizen science is "the involvement of volunteers and scientists in research activities, to generate new knowledge based on scientific evidence." The list goes on, but the point here is that citizen science is varied; ambiguous in approach, methodology, organization, and aim; and exceedingly difficult to define in simple terms.
Dr. Sforzi made clear that while citizen science projects are certainly valuable in their own right, if their findings use unreliable protocols and methods, or if their research is not defendable, the likelihood that this data will be included in policymaking or otherwise influence mainstream knowledge is low. There have been a number of efforts at the institutional level to establish basic criteria for citizen science projects in order to address this gap. (Although I explore a few of these initiatives below—all suggested by Dr. Sforzi—please note that this is by no means representative of the extensive debate on this topic.)
The ECSA (European Citizen Science Association) compiled Ten Principles of Citizen Science—and made this document available in 36 languages—in order to give a rough outline to what a project should entail.
The Green Paper Citizen Science Strategy 2020—published by Bürger Schaffen Wissen (Citizens Create Knowledge)—offers a comprehensive look at citizen science and describes some best practices for understanding and using it in Germany.
Scholars have also sought to define citizen science through research methods like surveys. One example is "Contours of Citizen Science: a Vignette Study" (Haklay et al. 2021), which "demonstrates the plurality of understanding of what citizen science is and calls for an open understanding of what activities are included in the field."
As Dr. Sforzi contended in his TedxManciano Talk, "citizen science can be made up of different solutions and can be applied to different fields... the sky is the limit." That said, to unlock the true potential of citizen science initiatives, it may be necessary to adhere to certain criteria that ensure the accuracy and relevance of data. Given that my Watson Project is partial to bottom-up, grassroots, and non-hegemonic forms of scientific practice, this realization is simultaneously helpful and troubling. While it makes sense that having a clear definition of citizen science is important, qualifying what constitutes citizen science—and what does not—has the potential to become an exclusionary enterprise. (This is one of the reasons why I did not use the term "citizen science" in my Watson Project Proposal and instead opted for "community science" and "participatory science." I find that these alternatives more accurately describe a form of science that is open, community-based, and centered on public engagement as a tool for agency rather than a more mainstream understanding of science.)
There are a number of side effects to citizen science becoming more mainstream. On the positive side, projects may become more accessible, methodologies may become more reliable, and participation may become more common. On the negative side, the risk of the term being misunderstood grows, opening up the potential for it to lose its significance as a citizen-based form of research and become part of the hegemonic scientific structure.
Final Thoughts
Citizen science is a powerful tool. Today, it faces two potentially diverging tasks: 1) to be an open and inclusive form of science that engages and empowers the public, and 2) to offer reliable research and data that can be defended and used in other realms (e.g., public policy, mainstream research). Over the course of this year, I hope to develop a greater knowledge of citizen science in theory and practice so that I may begin to find ways to reconcile these tensions. For now, I will continue observing, participating, and learning. Ciao!
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Thank you to Dr. Andrea Sforzi for talking with me and being such a wonderful resource! If any of my readers find themselves in Grosseto, Italy, I highly recommend that they visit the Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma.
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