STS: Citizen Science in Ornithology: The Co-production of Knowledge by Scientists and Lay People

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

SES 0116814 Bruce Lewenstein, Cornell University The Co-Production Of Knowledge By Scientists And Lay People : The "Citizen Science" Approach In Ornithology The proposed study utilizes qualitative methods (ethnography, semiotics, discourse-analysis, and cross-national comparison) to examine an innovative "Citizen Science" program developed by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology (CLO) and its counterpart in France. The Citizen Science program enrolls volunteers from the general public into field surveys and other scientific research projects. This program is interesting from a sociological point of view because it integrates in a single project people with different skills, scientific backgrounds, and interests into a coherent research program on a continent-wide (in North America) or national (in France) level. These programs provide a unique opportunity for observing change in the way scientific communities incorporate more and more lay experts to produce knowledge; our analysis encompasses a large network of non-scientists (15,000 participants in the United States and Canada; in the French case, a different form of network defies enumeration) and a sophisticated process for concentrating data in a single center of calculation. It also exemplifies a form of hands-on science education that differs fundamentally from the more traditional forms of one- way communication from experts to novices. The Principal Investigator and a French collaborator develop their existing involvement in the CLO and in ornithology in France into a systematic analysis exploring definitions of "scientist," "citizen," and "participation" revealed by the projects, which also allows for an international comparison. The CNRS is supporting the efforts of the French co-PI. This study's objectives are: (1 identification and description of emergent forms of lay-professional collaboration that are not covered by standard models in public understanding of science; (2) description of the "natural history of data" transformations in the form, personal significance, and scientific value of data collected by lay participants in field surveys and relayed to a research laboratory; and (3) analysis of written, electronic, and face-to-face communications between lay and professional participants in Citizen Science projects to assess the way the process of intersubjectivity, which is instrumental for groups to identify themselves, is created by the tools of action at a distance used by laboratories like the CLO and similar projects in France. Findings from the research have intellectual value for the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (S&TS), including the particular area of public understanding of science. The study's findings also have significant importance for science education, because they identify strategies, problems, and dilemmas associated with projects that involve schools and other lay organizations in actual research projects.