Can citizen science drive social change?
What is citizen science and how can this practice be implemented to benefit communities and boost prosperity? Based at the Institute for Global Prosperity University College London, the newly launched Citizen Science Academy aims to provide the answer. By training residents to the practices of social research and equipping them with the tools to drive social action in different areas around the world, the Academy hopes to affect positive global change.
Based at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP), the University College London (UCL) Citizen Science Academy is a new initiative that aims to deliver ‘community-based, practice-led research training to empower communities to lead change through social action and shaping policies that impact their livelihoods.’
Launched in early 2023, the Academy focuses on the delivery of inclusive and accessible participatory research, honed by a design penned by the partnership of the UCL Office for Open Science and the Citizen Science working group. The programme builds on the IGP’s work with local communities, led by the Prosperity Co-Laboratories (PROCOLs), that have been set up to conduct research around prosperity in the UK, Lebanon, and Africa.
What is citizen science?
Broadly defined, citizen science is research undertaken by members of the public, often in collaboration with or under the direction of academic or research institutions. A relationship that spans an entire research process, it’s a practice that champions inclusivity and innovation with the interests and needs of each community at its heart. The partnership between researchers and the public includes making decisions on the research themes and research questions, methods, and ways to share their results.
Citizen science is a social science that’s growing rapidly in research and practice, whose methodologies, among other aspects, continue to evolve. The European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) defines the characteristics that they believe harness the best practice on such research projects: a total of ten principles that promote the facilitation of a meaningful engagement with the communities in focus. These include ‘Partnering with organisations who can connect results directly into local decision-making’, ‘training citizen social scientists in practical research methods…’ and ‘to make citizen social science transformative for not just academic practice but citizens’ lives, too.’
It is this very practice that has been pioneered in projects such as Good Life Euston in central London, a partnership of the IGP, Camden Council, local voluntary organisation Camden Giving, Lendlease, The Euston Partnership, and 22 citizen scientists who designed and conducted research to help establish what prosperity means to people living in the Euston area. Through this collaboration, the trained citizen scientists carried out interviews with residents, walking ethnographies, and mapping activities. The findings helped inform and improve local government policies. The success of projects like this have led to the official launch of the UCL Citizen Science Academy and its growing work around the world.
Understanding prosperity with the help of local citizens
Each of the Prosperity Co-Laboratories (PROCOLs) focuses on a different area of research to drive change, depending on the cultural landscape and infrastructure. Research focuses on different social issues, each project tailored to reach a specific goal.
In Lebanon, for example, developing an agenda of prosperity was especially urgent because of the pressures that the country faces due to the ongoing refugee crisis. Building from this, the research in Lebanon aims to deliver inclusive growth and prosperous futures for communities impacted by mass displacement. Identifying this need, PROCOL Lebanon focuses on principles that will drive change through capacity building, place-based interventions, and policy design, with citizen science at its core.
Their research project on prosperity in Hamra uses a citizen social science methodology in which residents from the sites of inquiry play a central role in key activities of the research process and beyond: from the research design and data collection, all the way to the design and implementation of urban interventions that aim to improve the quality of life for local residents.
Engaging directly with the community of Hamra at each stage of the research process led to uncovering findings ‘not previously known about, even as locals.’ In a series of final workshops locals and the representatives from PROCOL Lebanon collectively discussed and brainstormed ways of improving each intervention, adapting it to the COVID-19 pandemic, and producing detailed plans, budgets, and timelines for implementation.
IGP’s research team in Africa focuses on issues of climate change and the challenge of limited resources and widespread poverty. The PROCOL Africa team believe that prosperity for local communities in these regions should undertake a new vision encompassing the natural ecosystem, to create communities that are sustainable, autonomous, and resilient.
One such study is Co-Producing Prosperity Research in Informal Settlements in Tanzania; working with communities in three informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, the research team explored what constitutes the maisha bora, or ‘the good life’, using ‘themes’ that indicated each settlement’s values for prosperity. Using co-production to design the research, produce and analyse the data, this research shows how opportunities to prosper and live well are dependent on a wide range of context-specific conditions, networks, practices, and infrastructures that extend beyond conventional poverty-reduction measures.
Citizen Science is a social science that is growing rapidly in areas of research and practice, whose methodologies, among other aspects, continue to evolve.New challenges identified by PROCOL UK include urban regeneration, rising social and financial inequalities, Brexit, austerity and public services, and the changing nature of work in the era of AI and robotics. Its research projects, including Good Life Euston, and the UCL Citizen Science Academy itself, also include the Prosperity in east London 2021–2031 longitudinal study, a 10-year project tracing the effects of urban regeneration on local communities in east London. Through a variety of methodologies, including focus groups, interviews, and walking ethnographies, the project is aiming to uncover the barriers for prosperity in the area.
The future of citizen science
The UCL Citizen Science Academy and their projects are empowering local communities to have a say in the policies that affect them and bring positive change. The IGP with the Academy are now using this inclusive research methodology around the globe. Collaboration with the public not only allows for a community’s best interests to be kept at heart, but can equip them to take action and drive change in urban contexts. Founder and Director of the Institute for Global Prosperity Professor Henrietta L Moore explains, ‘The concept of prosperity, as we understand it, does not mean economic wealth and opulence as is often assumed; rather, it represents the things that people need in order to live the lives they want to live in the kinds of environments that they want to live in.’
This initiative, as proven by these case studies, has allowed communities to discover more about themselves and what they can do to influence policies to increase their own wellbeing. This meant that in Africa, settlements have identified strategies and uncovered problems, which without citizen science, may have taken longer to discover. It is evident that initiatives like the UCL Citizen Science Academy are a leading force for change – with the best interests of those communities in need at its heart.
Personal Response
How are we able to spread awareness of such an initiative and begin implementing more stations around the globe? Is it an issue of funding, lack of partnerships, research, or all of the above?What does it mean to live a prosperous life? Questions about what societies value, whether prosperity is more or less than health, wealth, and wellbeing, and how resources and opportunities can be equitably distributed are fundamental human concerns and at the centre of political debates. We believe fundamentally that citizens and communities should be at the centre of efforts to reimagine prosperity. Re-thinking prosperity is a new agenda for transformative change, based on new ways of working that foreground local knowledge and the capacities communities have for action. Our research highlights how a local, place-based approach to examining prosperity reveals gaps between conventional definitions of prosperity and local experiences and aspirations. These gaps highlight where standard prosperity indicators, such as GDP, household income, job growth and employment, can obscure the reality of local experience and potentially lead to misguided conclusions and interventions.