STS: Citizen Science in Ornithology: The Co-production of Knowledge by Scientists and Lay People

SES 0116814 Bruce Lewenstein，康奈尔大学科学家和外行人知识的共同生产：鸟类学中的“公民科学”方法拟议的研究利用定性方法（民族志，符号学，话语分析和跨国比较）来检验由康奈尔大学鸟类学实验室（CLO）及其法国同行开发的创新“公民科学”项目。 公民科学计划从公众中招募志愿者参加实地调查和其他科学研究项目。从社会学的角度来看，该计划很有趣，因为它将具有不同技能，科学背景和兴趣的人整合到一个单一的项目中，并在整个大陆（北美）或国家（法国）层面上进行连贯的研究计划。这些计划提供了一个独特的机会来观察科学界将越来越多的外行专家纳入知识生产方式的变化;我们的分析包括一个大型的非科学家网络（美国和加拿大有15，000名参与者;在法国的情况下，一种不同形式的网络无法枚举）和一个复杂的过程，将数据集中在一个计算中心。它也体现了一种实践科学教育的形式，这种形式与更传统的从专家到新手的单向交流形式有着根本的不同。 首席研究员和一名法国合作者将他们在CLO和法国鸟类学中的现有参与发展为系统分析，探索项目揭示的“科学家”，“公民”和“参与”的定义，这也允许进行国际比较。 法国国家科学研究中心支持法国合作研究者的工作。（1）识别和描述公众理解科学的标准模式中未涵盖的非专业人员与专业人员合作的新形式;（2）描述“数据的自然历史”变换的形式，个人意义，非专业人员在实地调查中收集的数据并转送给研究实验室的科学价值;和（3）分析书面的，电子的，以及公民科学项目的外行和专业参与者之间的面对面交流，以评估主体间性过程的方式，这有助于群体识别自己，是由CLO等实验室和法国类似项目使用的远程行动工具创建的。 研究结果对科学和技术研究（S TS）的跨学科领域，包括公众对科学的理解的特定领域具有知识价值。 这项研究的发现对科学教育也有重要意义，因为它们确定了与学校和其他非专业组织参与实际研究项目的项目相关的策略、问题和困境。

SES 0116814Bruce Lewenstein, Cornell UniversityThe Co-Production Of Knowledge By Scientists And Lay People : The "Citizen Science" Approach In Ornithology The proposed study utilizes qualitative methods (ethnography, semiotics, discourse-analysis, and cross-national comparison) to examine an innovative "Citizen Science" program developed by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology (CLO) and its counterpart in France. The Citizen Science program enrolls volunteers from the general public into field surveys and other scientific research projects. This program is interesting from a sociological point of view because it integrates in a single project people with different skills, scientific backgrounds, and interests into a coherent research program on a continent-wide (in North America) or national (in France) level. These programs provide a unique opportunity for observing change in the way scientific communities incorporate more and more lay experts to produce knowledge; our analysis encompasses a large network of non-scientists (15,000 participants in the United States and Canada; in the French case, a different form of network defies enumeration) and a sophisticated process for concentrating data in a single center of calculation. It also exemplifies a form of hands-on science education that differs fundamentally from the more traditional forms of one- way communication from experts to novices. The Principal Investigator and a French collaborator develop their existing involvement in the CLO and in ornithology in France into a systematic analysis exploring definitions of "scientist," "citizen," and "participation" revealed by the projects, which also allows for an international comparison. The CNRS is supporting the efforts of the French co-PI.This study's objectives are: (1 identification and description of emergent forms of lay-professional collaboration that are not covered by standard models in public understanding of science; (2) description of the "natural history of data" transformations in the form, personal significance, and scientific value of data collected by lay participants in field surveys and relayed to a research laboratory; and (3) analysis of written, electronic, and face-to-face communications between lay and professional participants in Citizen Science projects to assess the way the process of intersubjectivity, which is instrumental for groups to identify themselves, is created by the tools of action at a distance used by laboratories like the CLO and similar projects in France. Findings from the research have intellectual value for the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies (S&TS), including the particular area of public understanding of science. The study's findings also have significant importance for science education, because they identify strategies, problems, and dilemmas associated with projects that involve schools and other lay organizations in actual research projects.