Citizens for Science and Science for Citizens: The View from Participatory Design

The rise of citizen science as a form of public participation in research has engaged many disciplines and communities. This paper uses the lens of Participatory Design to contrast two different approaches to citizen science: one that puts citizens in the service of science and another that involves them in the production of knowledge. Through an empirical study of a diverse array of projects, we show how participation in citizen science often takes the more limited forms suggested by the former approach. Our analysis highlights the implications of limited participation and demonstrates how the CHI community is uniquely positioned to ameliorate these limitations.

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