Abstract Summary
The term “citizen science” has become very popular among scholars as well as the general public. The rapid expansion of citizen science, as a notion and a practice, has spawned a plethora of meanings. One of the most common usages today refers to voluntary lay participation in the production of scientific knowledge, often in the form of “crowd sourcing” on an Internet platform such as Zooniverse. So here lies the issue: the notion of citizen science is both very diffuse and very specific. To address that issue, this paper tries to do two things. First, it argues that it is necessary to situate what is called “citizen science” in the relevant historical currents/contexts. “Citizen science” draws on and derives from various historical traditions of knowledge production. It has not come from nowhere. With a historical perspective, we will be able to see the genealogy of citizen science and the limits of a presentist, ahistorical definition of citizen science. And, second, this paper suggests that a fruitful – and politically relevant – way to understand citizen science is through the concept of citizenship. The existing literature has focused more on the “science” rather than the “citizen” part of citizen science (while admitting that they are mutually constituted). It tends to take for granted the political/communal framework in which such scientific activities are designed and conducted. This paper proposes a new perspective that will allow us to better interpret various modes of citizen science in different times and societies.
