A close look at citizen science as an extension of science: Actor network theory study of the three large scale Environmental Citizen Science Projects in Turkey

Abstract

Citizen Science in other words Public Participation in Scientific Research has been flourishing in intersections of academia, civil society and policy making by becoming an extension of science and a subject of Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS). Citizen science literature has been developing with the considerations on research types, motivations, benefits and shortfalls of citizen science. This thesis carries an actor network theory approach and problematizes by considering the citizen science literature, how the three frequent type citizen science researches in Turkey which are ‘The Turkish Breeding Bird Atlas’, ‘The Map of Threats to Water Resources in Turkey’ and ‘The National Jellyfish and Gelatinous Organisms Watch Program’ have been constructed as an extension of science. In order to describe the research processes, qualitative multiple case study was conducted, thirteen semi-structured interviews were made with the project coordinators of the three projects and the active citizen scientists of the two projects. The interviews and the projects’ documents were analyzed with NVivo through using Michel Callon’s (1984) four moments of translation (problematization, interessement, enrolment, mobilization) and the themes of citizen science such as motivations, benefits, shortfalls and science.