I attended the European Citizen Science Association's 2022 Conference in Berlin, Germany from the 5th to the 8th of October. Here, I met with citizen scientists, academics, and civil society representatives from all over the world; sat in on inspiring talks, interactive sessions, and presentations; and reaffirmed my conviction that non-scientists have an important and necessary role to play in the production and application of science.
View of Berlin, Germany from Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus (Humboldt University)
Conference Opening
During his Welcoming Address, Dr. Johannes Vogel—the President of ECSA and the General Director of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin—claimed on no uncertain terms that we "have to rethink the way we run the global economy and the global nature.” He spoke about the importance of understanding the environment in terms of planetary health, to view Earth as an interconnected system with inextricable ties to human health, biodiversity, well-being, and nature. Dorte Riemenschneider—ECSA's Executive Director—echoed this idea in her talk. She stated that there are "no solutions to the problems we are creating by overstepping the boundaries of our planet every day." We may attempt to tackle symptoms—such as air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, and natural resource depletion—by enacting laws, signing international treaties, and striving to eliminate pollution, but these are insufficient means to tackle the underlying problems. Humankind has failed to understand that Earth is a finite system, to see that actions have direct and lasting consequences, and to turn against its self-destructive behaviors. Rather than conceiving of environmental problems in isolation, we must understand them as symptoms of a greater ailment—a small part of a much larger story. By taking a wider view, we may more easily uncover and interrogate the attitudes, values, and practices that enable our current planetary predicament and develop new approaches and modes of thinking—such as Citizen Science—that allow us to intervene.
In addition to these talks, we also heard from Mario Brandenburg—the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, as well as Dr. Brigitte Baptiste—a cultural landscape ecologist from Colombia and the first of the ECSA Conference's Plenary Speakers—during the Conference Opening. Dr. Baptiste's presentation highlighted the potential of using Citizen Science to understand ecological entities—ranging from humans to plants to technology—and the complex and interconnected networks that they invoke.
Opening Reception Speakers (Dr. Vogel, D. Riemenschneider, M. Brandenburg, Dr. Baptiste)
The Conference
There were over 60 different sessions offered during the ECSA Conference (and I wanted to go to them all)! The following details my itinerary for Day 1 and Day 2.
ECSA Day 1
Plenary Talk: Planetary health, climate crisis and what we can do about it
Sabine Gabrysch, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Interactive Session 2: Rethinking public services provision citizen science to support: public and environmental health services
Anna Berti Suman, Nils Heyen, Marisa Ponti, Sven Schade
Interactive Session 3: Challenges, Strategies and Impacts of doing Citizen Science with Marginalised and Indigenous Communities: Towards a toolkit that can be applied in all contexts
Dimitris Argyriou, Petra Benyei, Finn Danielsen, Rick Hall, Timothy C. Woods
Oral Session 8: Creating knowledge together: Diversity and Inclusion (Chair: Claire Murray)
Katerina Zourou, Stefania Oikonomou: Citizen science for environmental and health issues in conflict zones
Kris Bevelander: Inclusive health research feels good!
Barbara Heinisch: Linguistic and cultural diversity for planetary health
Ekaterina Egorova: Urban blue, place-bonding and planetary health knowledge: A citizen science project with temporarily displaced children
Tali Tal: Co-created citizen science in school: Serving the poor and the wealthy
Hacer Tercanli: Enhancing diversity and inclusion in Citizen Science – Potential future directions
Oral Session 11: Ethics & Policy: how do we strengthen social innovation with Citizen Science? (Chair: Claire Murray)
Kirsten Vegt: Measuring together, trusting each other? Disagreeing stakeholders collaborate to measure air quality in a rural area in The Netherlands
Clara Schwindt: Understanding the loyalty of citizen scientists in biodiversity citizen science programs
Jacqueline Goldin: Keep the flow what has yarning got to do with citizen science
Guillermina Actis, Valeria Arza: Policy perceptions about the contribution of citizen social science on policy making: a case study on environmental justice
Aletta Bonn: Citizen Science to foster social innovation: Citizen Science Strategy 2030 for Germany
Rachel Pateman: Co-created citizen science in low- and middle-income country cities
Closing Words
ECSA Day 1
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ECSA Day 2
Plenary Talk: Citizen Science in the Global South
Peter Elias, University of Lagos, Nigeria
Interactive Session 9: The wickedness of citizen science, law and planetary health: grappling with trust, democracy and representation
Dick Kasperowski, Anna Berti Suman
Oral Session 15: Biodiversity Monitoring for Planetary Health (Chair: Gitte Kragh)
Michael Pocock: Precision citizen science developing adaptive sampling through co-design for biodiversity monitoring
Natalia Ghilardi-Lopes: The Citizen Science Program at the National Institute of the Atlantic Forest (Brazil): results from 2019-2021
Emu-Felicita Ostermann-Miyashita: Opportunities and challenges of citizen science for monitoring a recolonizing megaherbivore
Benoit Fontaine: Citizen science to mitigate the biodiversity crisis: lessons from Vigie-Nature, a long-term, large-audience biodiversity monitoring schemes network
Daniel Dörler: 7 years of Project Roadkill: A multi-stakeholder-approach to improve amphibian conservation in Austria
Céline Liret: ‘Objectif Plancton’, a citizen science programme dedicated to coastal plankton
Poster Session A2
Citizen Science projects presented by a number of individuals.
Interactive Session 14: How can we build trust in citizen science data to inform policy decisions and action?
Dilek Fraisl, Gerid Hager
Oral Session 19: Addressing Climate Change and advocating for Environmental Justice (Chair: Katrin Vohland)
Naomi Saville: Catalysing Climate Change Advocacy amongst Rural Nepalese Youth through Citizen Science
Leticia Castro, Valerie Arza, Guillermina Actis: Co-design process of a citizen-social-science platform for environmental justice in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pia Viviani: Finding, measuring an improving heat hotspots using citizen science
Amaranta Heredia: Addressing the complexity of hydro-climate risk: The experience of the citizen observatory of Drought (Spain)
Melvine Otieno: Adapting to a changing environment: Inspirations from Eastern Africa
Marjan a Brkić: Citizen science as a powerful tool for climate action
Closing Words
ECSA Day 2
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Key Takeaways & Impressions
Each session of the ECSA Conference was engaging, interesting, and opened up new questions and curiosities. I learned a lot about the diversity of citizen science projects in scope, subject, aim, and impact. Here are a few important takeaways:
Trust is essential.
Citizen science facilitates meaningful connections to nature and may catalyze behavioral change.
Citizen science is an emerging discipline: there is much to learn and try.
Citizen science may be used to bridge the gap between policy and practice.
There are inherent epistemological issues involved in citizen science. It is important to make space for alternative ways of knowing in this discipline.
Representation of communities and co-design project development is important to prevent citizen science projects from assuming a top-down nature.
Funding is a challenge.
Citizen science must become more diverse, inclusive, and accessible.
Language/Cultural considerations/environmental attitudes play an important role in the viability of citizen science projects.
Citizen science may be democratizing, break down walls and divides between people, and empower communities (but this is not always the case).
Citizen science may be harnessed across the world and has enormous potential for the future.
I am grateful to ECSA, the conference organizers, and all of the people I met for making my time in Berlin endlessly engaging!
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