CALL FOR PAPERS – 4S Panel on Citizen Science
Boston; August 30 – September 2, 2017
Submission deadline: March 1st, 2017
Submission link: https://convention2.
Title: Citizen Science: Beyond the Laboratory
*Convenors*
Gabriel Mugar, (Emerson College) gabriel@elab.emerson.edu
Carsten Østerlund, (Syracuse University) costerlu@syr.edu
Andrea Wiggins, (University of Maryland) wiggins@umd.edu
Nick Lalone, (Penn State University) nlalone@psu.edu
*Abstract*
Citizen science constitutes a rich and fast-evolving arena in the production of scientific knowledge, raising questions that speak to the core of STS scholarship. In its various forms, ranging from expert-driven crowdsourced and participatory sensing models to citizen-driven social and ecological justice initiatives, citizen science offers a rich empirical setting. This track will expand the dialogue around this growing practice of knowledge creation through traditional and cutting edge STS perspectives. Building on STS scholarship exploring the sociomaterial construction of scientific knowledge across settings and methods, we invite researchers to unpack citizen science’s spoken and unspoken sensibilities.
Relevant themes include but are not limited to the following:
- the entanglement and evolution of technologies and communities in citizen science;
- the influences of policy, technology, and professional scientific communities on emergent practices of knowledge co-production;
- the production of novices and experts, and how roles in citizen science are defined and negotiated,
- tracing information flows between contributors and project leaders;
- how stakeholders attempt to shape volunteer contribution to fit a particular need;
- the (in)sensibilities of peer production;
- how data quality is constructed and reconstructed; and
- how both formal and informal data quality standards are embodied in practices, technologies, and social structures.
Beyond questions of building and deploying citizen science practice, we also invite research that:
- examine how stakeholders resist or repurpose existing models in order to meet their personal needs,
- the role of traditional and local knowledge in citizen science, and
- the impacts of scientific disciplines and scientific methods on the perceptions of citizen science practices and products.
*Submit a paper*
Deadline for the abstract submissions to open tracks is March 1st, 2017.
Submission link: https://convention2.
Paper submissions should be in the form of abstracts of up to 250 words. They should include the paper’s main arguments, methods, and contributions to STS. You may choose to submit your paper abstract to an open panel, or you can leave panel selection to the program organizers. In addition to designating one or more topical Research Areas using the drop-down menu, please list up to five keywords to help the program organizers evaluate and assign your paper.