Sustainable and healthy living environments – How to mobilize citizens’ knowledge?

Resolving pressing sustainability problems, such as climate change or loss of biodiversity, requires firm evidence-base. The generation of evidence typically prioritizes expert knowledge although the decisions aiming at sustainability often influence the lives of citizens or demand committed action from them. It is widely recognized that professional knowledge alone is not sufficient in tackling the complex societal problems. 

Citizens have knowledge about their living environments that could inform better policies. But how to mobilize people’s own knowledge about their local environments into decision making? A growing number of citizen science initiatives demonstrate how large crowds can be enrolled in collecting data about environmental changes, often with the help of digital tools. They enable novel forms of interaction between citizens, science and policymaking. The long tradition and debates on participatory research in social sciences point out, however, the need to reflect on the quality and outcomes of these interactions. 

This webinar focuses on the experiences and methodologies developed in response to the increasing hunger for data about sustainability and citizens’ narrow role in expert-led decision-making. How do new ways of knowing and doing research, including digital interfaces, networks and interactions, change the relations between citizens, science and policymaking? Does participation in the production of knowledge lead to shared understanding? How to do citizen science in a way that responds to the concerns of citizens? What kind of in/equalities or hierarchies remain or result from the expanding and intensifying use of participatory approaches and how these could be addressed?

The webinar is going to be hold on Wednesday 25 May 2022 at 17:30–19:30 (EEST, Finland); 15:30–17:30 (BST, UK); 7:30–9:30 (PDT, Western USA)

For more details and registration click here.