Keep the Flow: Citizen Science as Agonistic Learning

Abstract

This paper addresses the transformative and emancipatory potential of citizen science not only concerning its role in groundwater management, but also regarding its contribution to enhanced and sustainable well-being. Our work is in the Hout Catchment region of the Limpopo province in South Africa where living conditions vary greatly, but all share a vulnerable dependency on the dwindling availability of water. We propose that the interaction between human water systems and its contextual social dimensions with regard to diversity and historically shaped structures of power has had serious impacts on the ability to tackle challenges of sustainable water management. In our project, citizen scientists markedly expanded data collection and analysis at a fraction of the cost of traditional scientific endeavours. Keep the Flow is not simply about effectively using measurement instruments, but also about practices of authentic learning through innovative methodologies that were used to communicate with citizens about science and with scientists about social transformation and well-being. In our workshops, we used art as a bridge. Citizen science takes place in agonistic learning spaces in which historical and geopolitical circumstances that have resulted in an uneven playing field for its participants were acknowledged. We begin by introducing the project, then we discuss plural understandings of citizen science and present our stakeholders. We subsequently examine our own citizen science approach as agonistic learning, which brings us to ideas of entanglement and meshwork. We then present our participatory action research methodology and the go-to tools we use in in agonistic learning spaces, followed by our conclusions.