(Re)shaping a citizen social science project for and with Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals

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Stefania Oikonomou, Katerina Zourou

Web2Learn, Thessaloniki, Greece

Conference “Contemporary Challenges: "Citizen Science" in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Pecs, Hungary, December 2-3, 2024,

Innovating in citizen science for social good.

• Greek R&D, est. 2014.
• Active in EU grants (Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, national funds).

Web2Learn at a glance

Scope

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Plan of today’s talk

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• Critically reflect on the conditions and consequences of (re)designing citizen science (CS) from a socially-oriented perspective;
• discuss methodological frameworks (including participatory action research (PAR)) that serve the design of CS projects for social good.

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• Exploring citizen social science (CSS) with an underrepresented community (Deaf citizens).
• Connecting CSS with PAR: Our case study with Deaf individuals in Greece.
• Presenting challenges leading to the re-design of our project.
• Reflecting on benefits & repercussions.

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Citizen science for social good

Working with underrepresented communities

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Citizen social science (CSS)

• Focus on “the social issues, social phenomena and the social dimensions of the world” (Cooper et al. 2021; Paleco et al. 2021).
• Encompassing participatory methodologies such as participatory action and co-created research processes.
• Raising social issues that groups of citizens are interested in. Often, such social issues concern the participants’ livelihoods, conditions or experiences (Albert et al. 2021; García-Terceño et al.2023).
• Joint paper: Oikonomou, S., Zourou, K., Czeglédi, A., & Mihok, B. (2024). Citizen social science: Two case studies with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities. 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN24), Palma (Spain). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13218853

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CSS with underrepresented communities

• A turn towards democratisation of scientific research and its results, while opening up participation opportunities! (Riemenschneider, Voigt-Heucke 2024; Vohland et al. 2019; Kimura & Kinchy. 2016).
• Socially-empowering CS: a solid co-reflexive process needs to be adopted allowing citizen scientists to systematically reflect on biases and challenges to social empowerment (Mahr, Göbel, Irwin, & Vohland 2018)
• CSS has a prominent role in research with Deaf citizens as an underrepresented community (indicatively: CitSci4All, YouCount projects).

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Connecting CSS with PAR

Addressing existing gaps in CSS

Image by pixabay

PAR with and for Deaf communities

• PAR moves from “research for people” towards “research with people” (Cornish et al. 2023).
• A longer history of engagement with Deaf groups (Holmström, Bagga-Gupta 2021)
• Bringing key DHH needs to the fore, such as:
• identification of health inequities experienced by Deaf communities, and
• the educational and learning outcomes of Deaf students.

[for simplicity the word “Deaf” encompasses and Hard-of-Hearing citizens]

Sources: Beal-Alvarez, J., 2017; Barnett, Steven et al. 2011; Flores, Tanya L., 2020.

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Connecting CSS with PAR

In CSS, “participation can and should take place in multi-dimensional, dynamically changing constellations of agency, control, self-determination and power, addressing, and often reframing ill-defined, significant problems” (Van De Gevel, van Etten & Deterding, 2020).

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“we need to move from citizen science to participatory research [..] to the many ways in which members of the public have engaged and continue to engage in the production of scientific knowledge, and how they make sense of this engagement”

(Strasser et al. 2019).

Our case study

CSS for the Deaf community

Overview

Scope: Deploy a series of 4 CS workshops with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) adults to a) enhance their participation in CS, and b) empower them as active agents of change within and beyond their community.

Period: December 2023-February 2024

Participants: 20 Deaf adults (aged 18 to 45), 1 Greek Sign Language interpreter, 2 researchers (Web2Learn)

Funding: Horizon Europe “European Citizen Science” project.

Workshop #1

• When: 10th December 2023
• Aim: Familiarise the Deaf community with concepts and tools of CS.
• Project: Map plant biodiversity through the iNaturalistGR app for 1 month
• Method: iNaturalist CS platform 
• Co-design with DHH participants: No

Challenges leading to the re-design of the project

• Top-down CS approach
• Lack of trust
• Low engagement
• Technology problems
• Limited timeframe

To address them, we:

a) readapted the CS project on a PAR basis, and

b) moved from an environmental CS project to a CSS one

Re(design) of the project

Source: (under review) Zourou, K., Oikonomou, S. (2024). (Re)designing a citizen social science project. A case study with Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals.

The subsequent workshops

• Workshop #2: Explore participants’ understanding and meaning of CSS (19/1/2024)
• Workshop #3: Raise awareness about DHH accessibility needs through CSS (28/1/2024)
• Workshop #4: Foster collaboration between DHH and Hearing people through CSS (4/2/2024)
• Key adaptations:
• Co-design with DHH participants;
• Art-based self-expression: Poem for CS, zine, Experiences and needs depicted through live sketchnoting!
• https://www.instagram.com/p/C22IqIquSO1/

Reflections

Image by pixabay

Benefits of integrating PAR in our CSS project

Key reflection points:

• Always look into specificities, engagement practices and culture of each community.
• Adopt and implement a co-reflexive process including all participants!

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Gains of our PAR-based adaptations:

• Increased trust between researchers and citizen scientists.
• Technology as a means of empowerment.

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Repercussions

• Increased costs
• Extra time investment
• Conceptual repercussions

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=> Repercussions are not always negative for your project if your research goal is to advance a community-driven CSS project.

=>On the contrary, these ‘extra miles’ become indispensable to materialise the benefits!

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Concluding remarks

1. In doing CSS with marginalised groups, the integration of PAR features seems to help better address the issues of ‘participation’ and ‘empowerment’.
2. A deeper exploration of the social potential and value created from bridging PAR features into CS projects is needed.
3. Readapting the initial design of a CSS project to focus on citizen engagement should be interpreted as a creative process with significant benefits for long-lasting engagement!

References

1. Oikonomou, S., Zourou, K., Czeglédi, A., & Mihok, B. (2024,). Citizen social science: Two case studies with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities. 16th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (EDULEARN24), Palma (Spain). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13218853
2. (under review) Zourou, K., Oikonomou, S. (2024). (Re)designing a citizen social science project. A case study with Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice journal.
3. Van De Gevel, J., van Etten, J., & Deterding, C. S. 2020. Citizen science breathes new life into participatory agricultural research: A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 40, 35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-020-00636-1
4. Strasser, B., et al. 2019. " Citizen science"? Rethinking science and public participation. Science & Technology Studies, 32(2), 52-76. https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/271012?ln=fr&v=pdf

Thank you!

Web2Learn:

https://web2learn.eu/

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