Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EnviroCitizen (Citizen Science for Environmental Citizenship: Backyard Birding and the Potential for Cultivating Green Engagement)
Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-09-30
While many projects have stressed the scientific quality of citizen science activities, there has been less inquiry into the ‘citizen’ part of the phrase ‘citizen science’. The EnviroCitizen project, which started 1 April 2020, proposes that the social capacity potential of citizen science extends to the very roots of what it means to be a citizen of the planet. The project brings together seven partners in Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, & Cyprus to uncover the processes by which citizen scientists working in environmental-based activities can strengthen their environmental citizenship. We seek to understand the ways in which citizen science involvement has been & could be in the future used to cultivate environmental citizenship, which encompasses new ways of thinking & acting in all aspects of life to promote environmental sustainability.
The project studies the relationship between citizen science activities & environmental citizenship by focusing on bird watching & bird counting activities. The project aims to (1) assess the evolution of citizen involvement in citizen science birding activities; (2) evaluate how citizens learn about & enact environmental citizenship through their citizen science birding activities; & (3) develop innovative community interventions designed to complement existing citizen science birding programs in order to cultivate environmental citizenship in the future. Our goal is to create new knowledge & community interventions in six different languages & cultures across Europe through an ambitious multi-language school-based educational program & public engagement events to both increase participation in existing bird counting activities & raise environmental citizenship as a deliberate outcome of involvement in these activities. EnviroCitizen collaborates with ornithology non-profit organizations as supporting external groups in the project in order to facilitate the research tasks as well as uptake & impact of the project’s intervention deliverables.
The project studies the relationship between citizen science activities & environmental citizenship by focusing on bird watching & bird counting activities. The project aims to (1) assess the evolution of citizen involvement in citizen science birding activities; (2) evaluate how citizens learn about & enact environmental citizenship through their citizen science birding activities; & (3) develop innovative community interventions designed to complement existing citizen science birding programs in order to cultivate environmental citizenship in the future. Our goal is to create new knowledge & community interventions in six different languages & cultures across Europe through an ambitious multi-language school-based educational program & public engagement events to both increase participation in existing bird counting activities & raise environmental citizenship as a deliberate outcome of involvement in these activities. EnviroCitizen collaborates with ornithology non-profit organizations as supporting external groups in the project in order to facilitate the research tasks as well as uptake & impact of the project’s intervention deliverables.
The project took a tripartite approach, looking at the past, present and future of birding citizen science. The first part assessed the evolution of citizen involvement in birding activities to historically contextualize citizens’ ideals, scientific practices, and ideas of nature and to create a European baseline dataset for use in the development of the interventions. This comprised a deep historical study of the development of bird counting and ringing activities involving citizens. It examined how standardization processes took place and the role of amateurs in both setting and carrying out standardized work with a focus on women’s and amateurs’ roles in bird protection and citizen science since the 1880s. The report showed the important role of volunteers and amateurs in the development of ornithology and birdwatching as citizen science, and the role of birding organizations and museums in promoting environmental citizenship and nature conservation. A series of tools were created for the evaluation of environmental-based citizen science initiatives by evaluating existing frameworks and practices. A profile of the demographics and motivations of historical and current participants in Netherlands bird counting projects was undertaken for comparison to the trends identified in earlier parts of the research. The second part focused on how citizen scientists learn about and enact their environmental citizenship through their birding activities. A theoretical model of environmental citizenship in citizen science was developed and offered conclusions about how citizen scientists learn and what sorts of citizen science activities can contribute to environmental sustainability. A series of videos were created about current digital birding platforms and offer insights on how these digital platforms enable or hinder environmental citizenship. A comparative ethnographic study of garden bird counts was completed. The report showed that there is a strong link between love for birds and love for nature, and that birding can lead to a broader awareness of the importance of nature. This awareness and love is important when developing activities to encourage environmental citizenship. The research also showed how birding is shedding its “nerdy” and “male” reputation and is becoming more mainstream, with more women and children getting involved. Thus exclusion is being addressed and birding has become and continues to become more welcoming. The third part of the project sought to develop tools to encourage environmental citizenship through birding. It comprised two tasks focusing on educating people about the environment through birds and birding activities. Educational materials in the form of a guidance booklet for teachers and an activity sheet booklet for students were produced and translated into into Estonian, Dutch, Norwegian, Spanish, Greek, Romanian and Ukrainian. A series of stakeholder events also took place in the partner countries. These events focused on participatory environmental citizenship with the goal of empowering participants to become environmental citizens. The booklets and activity sheets are freely downloadable from the project website and stakeholders are being encouraged to host them on their own websites or to link to them.
The EnviroCitizen project has generated a broad societal impact as well as domain-specific impacts on citizen science activities in society. Building on a systematic literature review which included most of the participation and environmental citizenship-related typologies of citizen science, the project demonstrated that current CS initiatives present several weaknesses pertaining to the development of environmental citizenship among participants. Future endeavors in the field should take into consideration elements affecting citizens’ participation. The project has developed approaches and materials that address understanding of citizens’ rights, responsibilities, and engagement on the environment, what we call the development of environmental citizenship. Such approaches offer ways to develop new knowledge and innovation within on-going CS initiatives. Participants in CS initiatives will be able to enhance the democratization of science by incorporating socio-political and socio-cultural actions, which will help promote citizens’ awareness, scientific literacy, and nature conservation. Through educational material, scientific publications, and policy recommendations, the project has targeted specific and relevant audiences for impact. In addition to the environmental citizenship elements of the project, the project's work on the history of birding as citizen science offers opportunities and methodologies that will be useful to other projects researching environmental history and literature. The project has demonstrated the vital relevance of humanities research and methods to the grand challenges facing society. The results of the project have been disseminated through many activities and venues. The project has had an active social media presence on Facebook and Twitter. A series of videos produced by the project enhance the impact.