Grassroots citizen science for global data environments
This research project uses data-led grassroots citizen science as a lens through which to consider actual and pending shifts in the governance of pressing global issues. Combining methods in Science and Technology Studies and Policy Analysis, it discerns how grassroots citizen scientists in three world regions (East Asia, Western Europe, Central Africa) mobilize new data devices and technologies to tackle environmental threats emanating from public concerns over environmental radiation, air pollution, and climate change. Recognizing that these complex, interdependent problems require a multi-stakeholder approach, it analyzes and compares how grassroots citizen data practices are received by local and global rules-based democratic and market institutions, including public authorities, research communities, businesses, mass media, and educational organizations. With concerned stakeholders, it addresses the tensions and pitfalls that emerge in these processes, as citizens create and value environmental data distinct from official institutional approaches. Its findings serve to incite collective learning about these tensions with the aim of facilitating mutually responsive environmental data governance. The project builds on the fellow’s research on citizen science in post-Fukushima Japan and his expertise in public engagement with new and emerging technologies. It will be carried out in close collaboration with Professor of Sociology Jennifer Gabrys (University of Cambridge), who is a leading expert in environmental sociology, digital technologies, and citizen participation.