Hybridizing Knowledge through Citizen Science: The Case of Environmental Crowdsensing

By Maryse Carmes
English

The expression of reciprocal commitments between scientists and non-professional researchers, the articulation of knowledge in participatory research and science depends on the objectives of the SRP program and on the configurations mobilized (participatory, collaborative, or contributory research). These dynamics also vary according to the socio-technical arrangements used and the learning capacities of the collectives made possible by the approach. This communication examines the socio-cognitive dimensions of participatory science and the processes of knowledge hybridization that underpin them, based on a pragmatic perspective of testing the programs themselves. Applied to environmental crowdsensing (participatory metrology relying on sensors and digital devices), this perspective proposes to apprehend these projects through the lens of transliteracy, involving scientific, metrological, technological, semiotic, and reflexive literacies. The hybridization of measurements and fields of knowledge in the domain of environmental monitoring remains a challenge that involves not only moving away from an extractivist approach, but also inhabiting the potential ecopolitical reconfiguration resulting from the pluralism of data and knowledge.

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