ARPHA Proceedings 6: 13-18, doi: 10.3897/ap.e126489
The promises of citizen science – fact or fake?
Barbara Heinisch‡‡ University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Corresponding author: Barbara Heinisch ( barbara.heinisch@univie.ac.at ) © Barbara Heinisch. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Heinisch B (2024) The promises of citizen science – fact or fake? ARPHA Proceedings 6: 13-18. https://doi.org/10.3897/ap.e126489 |  |
Abstract
Despite its increasing popularity, not everybody is supportive of citizen science. Authors are critical of the promises that citizen science practitioners claim and challenge the role citizen science can play in the democratisation of science or in tackling societal challenges. They put the promises of citizen science under scrutiny and question that citizen science can increase trust in science among the public by participating in actual research. Some critics do not only deny the promises of citizen science, but even see a threat in it as it may jeopardize academic freedom or cement existing power relations.
Keywords
societal challenges, personal outcomes, social good, science-society relationship.