Assessing the professionalisation of marine citizen science

MSSRG members, Ben McAteer and Wesley Flannery, have co-authored a chapter in a newly published book titled 'Transdisciplinary Marine Research: Bridging Science and Society'. The chapter, 'Assessing the Professionalisation of marine citizen science', presents a critical discussion of the evolution of citizen science and documents evidence of how an increasingly professional model is emerging. Through interviews with marine management experts and surveys with citizen science volunteers, the chapter examines how the shift toward professionalism is reducing the capacity of projects to empower local knowledge and to transform marine management processes. The chapter concludes by arguing that citizen science, and knowledge co-production processes more broadly, should not simply be about doing management better. Instead, citizen science must be about revising assumptions and challenging historic injustice. Endorsing a transformative stance on sustainability, the chapter asserts that marine citizen science cannot just be about sending around human sensors to collect data. Rather, it should serve the purpose of creating the cognitive and emotional preconditions to bring about radical change.

To download an Open Access version of the chapter, click below.

McAteer & Flannery - Assessing the Professionalisation of marine citizen science

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