Abstract
Participatory research can improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and scope of research processes, and foster social inclusion, empowerment, and sustainability. Yet despite four decades of agricultural research institutions exploring and developing methods for participatory research, it has never become mainstream in the agricultural technology development cycle. Citizen science promises an innovative approach to participation in research, using the unique facilities of new digital technologies, but its potential in agricultural research participation has not been systematically probed. To this end, we conducted a critical literature review. We found that citizen science opens up four opportunities for creatively reshaping research: (i) new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration, (ii) rethinking configurations of socio-computational systems, (iii) research on democratization of science more broadly, and (iv) new accountabilities. Citizen science also brings a fresh perspective on the barriers to institutionalizing participation in the agricultural sciences. Specifically, we show how citizen science can reconfigure cost-motivation-accountability combinations using digital tools, open up a larger conceptual space of experimentation, and stimulate new collaborations. With appropriate and persistent institutional support and investment, citizen science can therefore have a lasting impact on how agricultural science engages with farming communities and wider society, and more fully realize the promises of participation.
Highlights
Participatory research describes research that is done for or on and with people
While farmers have historically participated in all manner of agricultural research, farmer-participatory research became a specific focus in the agricultural sciences in the early 1980s
While Cooper et al (2007) define citizen science as “a dispersed network of volunteers to assist in professional research using methodologies that have been developed by or in collaboration with professional researchers”, other authors indicate that any scientific work undertaken by members of the general public should be considered citizen science, as long as it aims to follow protocols which align with standard practices within the discipline in which the research is framed (ECSA 2020)
Summary
Participatory research describes research that is done for or on and with people. While farmers have historically participated in all manner of agricultural research, farmer-participatory research became a specific focus in the agricultural sciences in the early 1980s This stemmed from the recognition that farmers in marginal areas generally did not benefit from technological advances and that more effort should be invested into more inclusive approaches While participatory research attracts attention, it is not fully integrated into biophysical or experimental agricultural research focused on technology development (Figure 1). Despite this general disappointment with participatory research, it is currently receiving renewed interest with approaches that make more intensive use of new digital technologies, generally denominated as “citizen science.”.
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