Article
Version 2
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Can Citizen Science in the Humanities and Social Sciences Deliver on the Sustainability Goals?
Version 1
: Received: 17 June 2022 / Approved: 20 June 2022 / Online: 20 June 2022 (09:49:12 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 11 July 2022 / Approved: 12 July 2022 / Online: 12 July 2022 (08:06:28 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 18 July 2022 / Approved: 19 July 2022 / Online: 19 July 2022 (10:31:21 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 11 July 2022 / Approved: 12 July 2022 / Online: 12 July 2022 (08:06:28 CEST)
Version 3 : Received: 18 July 2022 / Approved: 19 July 2022 / Online: 19 July 2022 (10:31:21 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Henke, J. Can Citizen Science in the Humanities and Social Sciences Deliver on the Sustainability Goals? Sustainability 2022, 14, 9012. Henke, J. Can Citizen Science in the Humanities and Social Sciences Deliver on the Sustainability Goals? Sustainability 2022, 14, 9012.
Abstract
Both the sustainability discourse and the debate on citizen science are strongly focused on the natural and technical sciences. Yet, numerous participatory research activities can be identified in the social sciences and humanities that address sustainability issues of various kinds. These have hardly been studied so far, and their contribution to addressing sustainability challenges is poorly known. The study investigates which sustainability topics are taken up by citizen science in the humanities and social sciences, which factors influence the choice of topics, and its implications. For this purpose, the concept of Citizen Social Science (CSS) is taken up and sustainability is operationalized via the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and its specific Targets. Based on a collection of CSS activities in Germany, the addressed sustainability topics are identified accordingly. This is followed by an analysis of how these patterns depend on key characteristics of the CSS projects. The findings indicate a focus on three SDGs related to education, sustainable cities and partnerships for the Goals, while at the same time the project consortia are very heterogeneous. CSS shows particular strengths here through its multi-stakeholder approach. Going forward, the linking of Citizen Science with the SDGs requires further formalization so that its transformative effects can be incorporated into SDG monitoring and the scientific institutions need additional incentives to participate in CSS.
Keywords
citizen science; citizen social science; sustainability; SDG
Subject
Social Sciences, Sociology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Commenter: Justus Henke
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
The methodological approach to analyse the data was added.
First section was split in 2 sections
An overview table in the literature section was added
This figure was added to sub-section Data basis and methods of analysis
Added two sentences in the introduction that justify the selection of Germany
Methodological section strengthened by explaining research steps in more detail and adding references
More details and examples have been provided accordingly
Another mention of the limitations was added to the conclusions.
Numbers and names are now provided additionally in the appendix
Citizen Science has been replaced throughout the text with CS
Use of “however” dramatically reduced throughout the text
A Synthesis of existing approaches was added
Analysis of results has been extended in various places
A mention on the relevance for curricula was added in the discussion
A figure with main findings was added at the end of the discussion