Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Katarzyna Cieslik
(University of Manchester)
Bruce Mutsvairo (Utrecht University)
Mirjam de Bruijn (Leiden University)
- Stream:
- D: Digital inequalities and development data
- Location:
- F6
- Start time:
- 27 June, 2018 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on the role of citizen science in the theory and practice of international development. It invites papers that explore the perils and prospects of crowd-sourcing development data, including conceptual, empirical and applied approaches.
Long Abstract:
Including stakeholders in the process of knowledge generation has its long history within the development sector, dating back to the applied work of Freire and Chambers. Participatory action researches advocated disrupting the institutional monopolies of scientific production, pointing to the power inequities that invalidate local knowledge(s). Citizen science, on the other hand, has its roots in the Western academia and its quest to connect with broader society. Both approaches provide an integrated approach to fostering the capacity of communities to build actionable knowledge for themselves and by themselves. Up until recently, most crowd-sourced research projects were based in Europe and the US. Fueled by technological breakthroughs, however, citizen science has articulated the potential to contribute to development practice as well; as an innovative approach to participatory research. The emergence of new actors on the development arena (e.g. Crisis Mappers, EXCITE, UN Innovation Labs and Environmental Virtual Observatories) has sparked optimism that low-cost, large-scale, longitutal, real-time data will allow us to better respond to the complex developmental challenges. Based on the principle of decentralized and open knowledge co-generation and exchange, citizen science projects are neutral to social and knowledge ranks, as well as working styles. At the same time, they may bring to the surface new modalities of power and contestation between different visions and expectations of professional and user communities, sparking new forms of inequality. With the lack of regulatory frameworks and ethical guidance, instead of dialogue, crowdsourcing social and environmental data may turn into an efficient tool of mass surveillance. Citizen science: friend or foe?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Jacqueline McGlade (Maasai Mara University) David Leyian (Sekenani Envirotech Centre)
Paper short abstract:
MwituWetu (Swahili - Our Wild Places) provides tourists to east Africa with crowd-sourced audio-visual information about where to find lesser known wildlife and how a live or a virtual visit can help improve local livelihoods and communities.
Paper long abstract:
Connecting wildlife tourism to improving local livelihoods is a cornerstone of development in many east African countries. However, outside the national parks, reserves and conservancies, there are few opportunities for local communities to benefit from this source of income. Based on the idea of TripAdvisor, MwituWetu provides crowd-sourced advice to travellers on where they can experience a new type of wildlife safari, seeing and listening to birds and amphibians live in the field and in the comfort of their homes. MwituWetu also guides visitors towards local expertise and community activities that they can use to plan a visit or contribute towards - something that is rarely available in traditional tourist packages. MwituWetu is supported by leading ornithologists and herpetologists to give users an assurance of quality.
Simon Hoyte (University College London) Jerome Lewis (University College London)
Paper short abstract:
The development of co-designed smartphone applications is being implemented in collaboration with Baka hunter-gatherers and Bantu farmers in Cameroon, empowering forest communities to report wildlife crime and animal movements through community-led citizen science built on local knowledge systems
Paper long abstract:
Animal species of the Congo Basin are facing extinction as a result of deforestation and the illegal wildlife trade. Sharing the rainforest with these species are forest people. Indigenous Baka hunter-gatherers have occupied the forests of south-eastern Cameroon for many thousands of years but have been forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands to roadsides, providing space for people-free conservation areas and extractive industries. Many Baka groups feel a great sense of injustice towards outsiders pillaging forest resources whilst they themselves are severely restricted from using of the forest for ritual, medicinal, and subsistence activities. Communities express a desire to be involved in tackling such activity, a lack of empowerment and appropriate tools cited as the greatest barrier.
The data collection platform Sapelli, developed by the Extreme Citizen Science group (ExCiteS), is being implemented in collaboration with Baka and farmer communities using rugged smartphones to support local reporting of wildlife crime and mapping of important animal habitats. Sapelli utilises a community-led, co-design methodology, promoting the integration of local knowledge systems, and aims to enable anyone, regardless of literacy level or technological ability, to be involved. Addressing power imbalances and building trust is centred on providing the space and time necessary for communities to decide on the nature of their involvement, and potential benefits and risks. An average of 18 reports are received per week demonstrating that a citizen science approach for data collection can offer a sorely-needed alternative to conservation methodologies that exclude local people and fail to protect wildlife
Maria Teresa Melis (University of Cagliari) Paolo Loddo Francesco Dessì (University of Cagliari) Claudio La Mantia Giorgio Ghiglieri (University of Cagliari) Khamisi Kalegele (Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology)
Paper short abstract:
With the aim to share with local community data on land use and water use FLOWERED GeoDBApp has been developed in the framework of H2020 FLOWERED Project. The app is based on the collection of local geo-information on land use and water uses, through a crowd-generating data process.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is part of the the EU H2020 research Project FLOWERED (de-FLuoridation technologies for improving quality of WatEr and agRo-animal products along the East African Rift Valley in the context of aDaptation to climate change). FLOWERED project (June 2016- May 2019) aims to develop technologies and methodologies to manage the risks associated with high Fluoride water supply in three study areas located in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. With the aim to share with local community data on land use and water use, FLOWERED Project has developed an application for mobile, namely FLOWERED GeoDBApp. The app is dedicated to the collection of local geo- information on land use, water uses, irrigation systems, household features, use of drinking water and the other information needful for the specific knowledge of water supply (and then, the most suitable water remediation technique) involving local communities through participative approach with the local actors. The app has been developed with an open source SDK called Ionic Framework for iOS and Android systems, and it is available for download at http://sharegeonetwork.floweredproject.org/geoportal/app. First field activity has been done in the study site in Tanzania in 2017. Data on water quality have been collected through involving of local communities and a very high interest has been demonstrated on the possibility to observe each point of interest and the land cover map in own device.
Project FLOWERED has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N. 690378.
Paul Smith (waternumbers) Jonathan Paul (Imperial College London) Wouter Buytaert (Imperial College London) LandslideEVO Consortia
Paper short abstract:
Enabling citizen science by collecting real-time hydrometric data using robust, low-cost sensor networks generates locally actionable knowledge, and empowers local stakeholders, to build resilience to natural hazards. The use of citizen science in polycentric risk management practices is discussed.
Paper long abstract:
In managing the risks associated with hydrological hazards (e.g. floods, drought), non-specialist local stakeholders have arguably always played an important role by providing empirical risk knowledge and supporting resilience building. With the rapid growth of highly connected societies utilising technologies such as the Internet, smartphones, and social media, 'crowdsourcing' data has been used to monitor evolving risks (e.g. http://www.globalfloodsystem.com/). However, such approaches do not fully engage with the capability and capacity of local communities to perform citizen science (or "collaborative learning"), thereby making knowledge creation more multidirectional, decentralized, diverse, and inclusive.
This paper discusses an emerging direction in citizen science by enabling local non-scientist stakeholders to collect real-time hazard data using robust and low-cost sensor networks. The establishment of such networks is outlined, highlighting the need for a clear definition of their purpose(s), along with a profound understanding of the motivations and skillsets of all participants and stakeholders.
We show that such networks have great potential to enhance local knowledge co-creation and can serve as a means of educating and empowering communities and stakeholders that are bypassed by more traditional knowledge generation processes. We then discuss such citizen science initiatives within the context of polycentric risk management; in particular, how they can complement and augment more traditional knowledge generation practices (for example, by enabling increased preparedness through local forecasting), as well as top-down risk management approaches often practised in e.g. flood early-warning systems.