Citizen Science and Democracy: Participation with a Purpose

Eileen Scanlon, Christothea Herodotou

2025

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the changing role of citizen science in research, teaching, and learning. This change is being brought about by the development of a wider perspective on the potential purposes of participation in citizen science both for scientists and for members of the public. In this paper we review frameworks for participation, discuss benefits of participation and consider whether we can use new models of citizen science to democratise research. Citizen science is best understood as a democratic endeavour. The more opportunities for learning, the more people benefit, the more challenging the task for educators, the more varied the media and tools developed to support this purpose. Educators have extended the range of opportunities for learning to include not just formal settings, but informal ones. This position paper discusses the development of tools to support the connections between formal and informal learning settings and in particular the potential of tools to support citizen science, as a vehicle for learning both about science and about the conduct of research.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Scanlon E. and Herodotou C. (2025). Citizen Science and Democracy: Participation with a Purpose. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU; ISBN 978-989-758-746-7, SciTePress, pages 492-499. DOI: 10.5220/0013350800003932

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu25,
author={Eileen Scanlon and Christothea Herodotou},
title={Citizen Science and Democracy: Participation with a Purpose},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU},
year={2025},
pages={492-499},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013350800003932},
isbn={978-989-758-746-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU
TI - Citizen Science and Democracy: Participation with a Purpose
SN - 978-989-758-746-7
AU - Scanlon E.
AU - Herodotou C.
PY - 2025
SP - 492
EP - 499
DO - 10.5220/0013350800003932
PB - SciTePress