CoAct (Co-designing Citizen Social Science for Collective Action) has been addressing COMPLEX AND WICKED SOCIAL PROBLEMS, from the perspective of affected citizens. Combining the different backgrounds of the partners and their collaborators, CoAct has been SETTING THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL GROUNDS TO EXPLORE CITIZEN SOCIAL SCIENCE (CSS), a citizen science that addresses to social issues and/or within the field of social sciences.
CoAct has focussed important efforts on four social issues already identified within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and under the form of Research and Innovation Actions (R&I Actions). In Barcelona (Spain), CoAct has been specifically targeting MENTAL HEALTH social support networks, referring to people's social environment and informal social interactions. People with mental health problems and their close environment are revindicating the importance of these networks. These networks are quite unknown and ask for scientific evidence to promote related political and collective actions. In Vienna (Austria), CoAct has been wanting to improve the measures within the framework of “Education and Training up to 18” and thus to promote YOUTH EMPLOYMENT. Early School Leavers and NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) youth are the target groups of these measures that aim to enhance social skills, basic education and help them in finding their educational pathway. In Buenos Aires (Argentina), CoAct has been tackling ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE in a highly polluted basin, where 1,200 families are being relocated due to health risks. These families directly affected do not generally participate neither in the definition of the problem, nor in what the social-environmental risks are, nor in the design of actions to mitigate these risks. CoAct has been developing a CSS framework in which Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play a key role. For this reason, CoAct fourth Research and Innovation Action has invited and guided CSOs to develop their own research on GENDER EQUALITY.
CoAct project is IMPORTANT FOR SOCIETY as it has been proposing a new approach to face these concerns by ENGAGING CITIZENS AS CO-RESEARCHERS (having an equal seat at the table with professional scientists) and by building a KNOWLEDGE COALITION (with organisations already working on the social issue identified). CoAct has in this way harnessed socially robust scientific knowledge which considers the perspective of the affected citizens in all steps of the research. The Knowledge Coalition has contributed to build collective actions, policies and measures with scientific evidence impossible to be obtained without the deep involvement of the affected citizens. With this two-levels of involvement, CoAct has delivered Policy Briefs to political, educational or health authorities in a local, regional, national or European level.
CoAct approach represents a new understanding of the underexplored field of CITIZEN SOCIAL SCIENCE (CSS). The participatory research has been co-designed and directly driven by citizen groups sharing a social concern. The OVERALL OBJECTIVE of CoAct has been to deploy CSS research with the aim to demonstrate THE SCIENTIFIC RELEVANCE AND THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CSS.
