While all these definitions have things in common – in particular, a notion of a public that participates in an activity called scientific research – most of them are imprecise and open to interpretation. Yet, as we look through a table of definitions of citizen science – which were taken from influential actors and documents (Table 2.1) – a pattern starts to emerge. This origin story provides an indication of what citizen science is: it includes the generation of scientific data (through the testing of the acidity of rainwater), engages volunteers over a large area (the continental USA), and addresses a politically relevant issue (acid rain and the lobbying process to reduce it). The information is used to lobby Congress’ (Kerson 1989, p. Volunteers collect rain samples, test their acidity levels, and report the results to Audubon headquarters, which releases a monthly national map of acid-rain levels. ![]() Audubon involves 225 society members from all 50 states in a “citizen science” program that gets information out within five weeks. Government studies sometimes withhold data for years”, says Audubon vice president Robert San George. With regard to the latter, it states: ‘“Speed is also crucial to the Audubon Society’s acid-rain campaign. The article ‘Lab for the Environment’ covers three examples: community-based laboratories that explore environmental hazards, laboratory work by Greenpeace, and Audubon’s recruitment of volunteers in a ‘citizen science’ programme. The term appeared in an issue of the MIT Technology Review from January 1989. The first recorded use of the term citizen science in the form that we currently use can be traced to three decades ago, according to the researchers of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). We pay attention to the need for definitions and criteria for specific contexts and how people in different roles can approach the issue of what is included in a specific interpretation of citizen science. Understanding these differences and their origin is important for practitioners and policymakers. Based on this background, we track trade-offs linked to the prioritisation of these different objectives and aims of citizen science. We do that from a particularly European perspective, where the variety of national and subnational structures has also led to a diversity of practices. We explore how citizen science has been defined differently, depending on the context. ![]() Yet, citizen science as a field seems somewhat resistant to obeying a limited set of definitions and instead attracts discussions about what type of activities and practices should be included in it. In this chapter, we address the perennial question of what is citizen science? by asking the related question, why is it challenging to define citizen science? Over the past decade and a half, we have seen the emergence of typologies, definitions, and criteria for qualifying citizen science.
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