Work

Dark citizen science

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Citizen science is often celebrated. We interrogate this position through exploration of socio-technoscientific phenomena that mirror citizen science yet are disaligned with its ideals. We term this ‘Dark Citizen Science’. We identify five conceptual dimensions of citizen science – purpose, process, perceptibility, power and public effect . Dark citizen science mirrors traditional citizen science in purpose and process but diverges in perceptibility, power and public effect . We compare two Internet-based categorisation processes, Citizen Science project Galaxy Zoo and Dark Citizen Science project Google’s reCAPTCHA. We highlight that the reader has, likely unknowingly, provided unpaid technoscientific labour to Google. We apply insights from our analysis of dark citizen science to traditional citizen science. Linking citizen science as practice and normative democratic ideal ignores how some science-citizen configurations actively pit practice against ideal. Further, failure to fully consider the implications of citizen science for science and society allows exploitative elements of citizen science to evade the sociological gaze.

Source: Public Understanding of Science

DOI: 10.1177/09636625231203470

Authors: James Riley, Will Mason-Wilkes

Institution: University of Birmingham

Language: English

Topic: Geographic Information Systems Studies

Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,250