IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v78y2024ics0160791x24001751.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Redefining the boundaries of citizen social science to avoid a repackaging of common social science methods

Author

Listed:
  • Freiling, Isabelle
  • Matthes, Jörg

Abstract

Citizen science (CS) means including volunteers alongside professional researchers in the research process. CS is predominantly and traditionally used in natural sciences, but also increasingly in social sciences. The understanding of traditional CS is oftentimes completely transferred to citizen social science, which we argue is inadequate. As social sciences study human interactions, they involve people in their data collection all the time. Commonly used social science methods therefore already cover one type of CS that is defined by including volunteers mainly in data collection: contributory CS. This overlap creates an urgent need for redefining the boundaries of citizen social science. We argue for only calling those projects citizen social science that go beyond contributory projects to avoid the mere repacking of commonly used social science methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Freiling, Isabelle & Matthes, Jörg, 2024. "Redefining the boundaries of citizen social science to avoid a repackaging of common social science methods," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:78:y:2024:i:c:s0160791x24001751
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102627
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X24001751
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102627?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:78:y:2024:i:c:s0160791x24001751. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.