From citizen science to citizen action: analysing the potential for a digital platform to cultivate attachments to nature

Nirwan Sharma* (Corresponding Author), Sam Greaves, Advaith Siddharthan, Helen Brenda Anderson, Anne-Marie Robinson, Laura Colucci-Gray, Agung Toto Wibowo, Helen Bostock, Andrew Salisbury, Stuart Roberts, David Slawson, Rene Van der Wal

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Identifying private gardens in the U.K. as key sites of environmental engagement, we look at how a longer-term online citizen science programme facilitated the development of new and personal attachments of nature. These were visible through new or renewed interest in wildlife-friendly gardening practices and attitudinal shifts in a large proportion of its participants. Qualitative and quantitative data collected via interviews, focus groups, surveys and logging of user behaviours, revealed that cultivating a fascination with species identification was key to both 'helping nature' and wider learning, with the programme creating a space where scientific and non-scientific knowledge could co-exist and reinforce one another.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberA07
Number of pages35
JournalJournal of Science Communication
Volume18
Issue number1
Early online date17 Jan 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Citizen science
  • Environmental communication
  • Public understanding of science and technology

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