The status and potentials of citizen science: A mixed-method evaluation of the Danish citizen science landscape
IND's studenterserie Nr. 67. Specialerapport.
Christian Peter Stolt, august 2018.
Vejleder: Marianne Achiam
Abstract
Citizen science is a rapidly expanding field of scientific inquiry, but the field of citizen science in Denmark has not been systematically reviewed. This study explores the status and potentials of citizen science in Denmark though a mixed-method review of the current landscape of citizen science projects and themes of interest among citizen science project developers. First, Danish citizen projects were identified and categorized according to established typologies. Secondly, interviews of citizen science project developers were performed and analyzed to reveal which themes shape the landscape of Danish citizen science. Thirdly, quantitative investigations were performed to reveal how citizen science involvement shapes citizen science-related attitudes and preferences. A total of 55 running citizen science projects were identified, with the majority being Investigation or Conservation projects organized by science institutions or NGOs. In many projects, public participation was limited almost exclusively to data-collection. The thematic analyses of interview data revealed that organizational constraints, participation-patterns, data-quality and citizen science impact were vital themes of interest for assessing the status and potentials of citizen science in Denmark. The quantitative analyses supported these findings. Citizen science-related preferences among citizen science project developers varied significantly across organizational ties. This study shows that Danish citizen science is mostly an instrumentalist, top-down-facilitated, input-oriented entity, but the evidence suggest that citizen science is also widely the regarded to be capacitybuilding. It is discussed how perceptions of CS influence the status and potentials of CS in Denmark. Finally, this study discusses how the potentials of citizen science in terms of scientific impact and societal impact can be realized.