Examples of citizen science case studies and projects (Pelacho et al., 2021)

Examples of citizen social science case studies and projects (Albert et al., 2021)

Box 7.1: The Mass Observation Project The Mass Observation Project, which can be considered a prototype of citizen social science, consists of two parts: (1) the Mass Observation movement, 1937-1950s, and (2) the Mass Observation Project, 1981-present. Since it began, almost 4500 people have volunteered for the project. Many of these volunteers have been participating for several years, making the project rich in qualitative longitudinal material. In its current format, around 450 volunteer participants are recruited from all over Britain, to participate on the Mass Observation Project writing Panel. These writers (often known as 'Observers") respond to 'Directives', or open-ended questionnaires, sent to them by post or email three times a year. The Directives contain two or three broad, open-ended themes, which cover both personal issues and wider political and social issues and events. The project solicits in-depth accounts (both opinion and experience) of everyday life: stories, memoirs, lists, letters, diagrams, drawings, maps, diaries, photographs, press cuttings, confessions, and reports on people, places, and events, across a wide variety of topics. The project is open in terms of the data generated being available for use by all, but also in terms of the ways in which the project organisers regularly consult and engage with the volunteer panel of Observers, to reflect on the developments of the project and how the process of participating in writing for Mass Observation impacts the Observers themselves. This adds to the overall research integrity of the project.

Box 7.2: Voices for Change The PAR project Voices for Change was run by a charity in Australia between 2007 and 2011 (Stevenson 2010, 2014). The aim of the project was to develop an Emancipatory Disability Research (EDR) framework, by involving young people with intellectual disabilities in academic research. In this case, researchers included lay people in the data analysis stages of the research process. Participants undertook a journey from research informant to co-researcher and engaged in elements of data collection, immersion in the data, interpretation, negotiating meanings, and critically appraising research outputs. The project was developed in consultation with young adults (18-25 years) with Down's syndrome and sought to assist young people in achieving their life goals and greater social connections using a circles of support model (Stevenson 2014). The core strategy of the research 'was to make all aspects of the research process as participatory as possible in respect of the co-researchers; to draw on their "local expertise", and ensure that their "voices" were heard throughout' (Stevenson 2014: 24). This example of a PAR project highlights how framing a project in certain ways allows for participation from targeted groups.

Box 7.3: Games for Mental Health The OpenSystems research group in Barcelona developed a set of public experiments in urban contexts: more than 5400 neighbours participated in over a dozen initiatives from 2012 to 2019. One example was a research collaboration to improve the lives of people with a mental health condition and their families and friends, initiated by a major organisation for the families of people with a mental health condition in Catalonia (Bonhoure et al. in press). The outputs of this collaboration included a scientific publication in an open access multidisciplinary journal (Cigarini et al. 2018), whose scientific data is openly accessible jointly with a report for the community, policymakers, and the general public. The dominant paradigm in mental health research and practice still affords biomedical knowledge a privileged status, but other models entail more holistic approaches. The Community Mental Health Care model (Thornicroft et al. 2016) supports care in community and domiciliary settings. Individuals with a mental health condition, jointly with their informal and formal care-givers, social workers, and relatives, form an ecosystem in which social interactions play a central role in promoting efficient and sustainable care in the community. The research in practice is an informal mission-oriented joint venture undertaken by researchers and representatives of the mental healthcare community. Participants are engaged actively and consciously to leam about the research outputs through an additional set of activities that can empower specific vulnerable groups. Furthermore, self-selection issues, which apply to standard experimental settings (Henrich et al. 2010), are considered through different lenses when participation is enhanced. This example provides a broad outline of the potential for a synergistic relationship between citizen science, mental health care, and the social sciences (social dilemmas) under the umbrella term of computational social science. It represents a novel addition to the approaches that have already been thoroughly analysed in the context of health (Wiggins and Wilbanks 2019).

Sources:

Pelacho, M., Rodríguez, H., Broncano, F., Kubus, R., García, F. S., Gavete, B., & Lafuente, A. (2021). Science as a Commons: Improving the Governance of Knowledge Through Citizen Science (K. Vohland, A. Land-Zandstra, L. Ceccaroni, R. Lemmens, J. Perelló, M. Ponti, R. Samson, & K. Wagenknecht, Hrsg.; S. 57–78). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4_4 Albert, A., Balázs, B., Butkevičienė, E., Mayer, K., & Perelló, J. (2021). Citizen Social Science: New and Established Approaches to Participation in Social Research. In K. Vohland, A. Land-Zandstra, L. Ceccaroni, R. Lemmens, J. Perelló, M. Ponti, R. Samson, & K. Wagenknecht (Hrsg.), The Science of Citizen Science (S. 119–138). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4_7