[LUM#1] Citizen science, a counter-culture on the move

[LUM Magazine] - Published on December 22, 2015 in Science-Society

Voluntarily independent, based on the involvement of volunteer citizens, "citizen science" is not afraid to call itself revolutionary. Nor are they afraid of stirring up controversy...

While participatory science fits neatly into an institutional framework - programs defined by researchers, for researchers - citizen science claims a status of its own. " They claim the existence of knowledge outside the walls, shake up the order established by academic research and question the legitimacy of knowledge," explains Vincent Devictor, ecologist and philosopher.

Their credo: refuse to allow knowledge to be confiscated by institutions. Proponents of citizen science are inventing new ways of organizing themselves, in a much more participatory mode, with no hierarchy," explains Guillaume Bagnolini, philosopher of science. The scientific method remains the same, but the mode of governance changes to adopt an associative model. This is unprecedented in the history of science .

Open-source biology

In practice? Lovers of citizen science organize themselves into community laboratories where everyone brings their own research projects. They include the scientifically curious, enlightened amateurs, as well as researchers. " Some enter these alternative laboratories because they don't totally agree with the way research is practiced ," explains Guillaume Bagnolini. Many of them are interested in biohacking, " a trend that aims to bring scientific data related to biology within everyone's reach ".

A field where citizen science is often regarded as "garage biology". " It's all about salvaged materials and system D," explains Guillaume Bagnolini. "We find the worst, but also the best! Because superb projects sometimes emerge," adds Vincent Devictor. From biological ink and green batteries to affordable malaria detectors, the innovations coming out of community labs might not have been invented elsewhere...

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