Workshop Report WG 4: "People-Places-Stories"
COST-Genf-2018-StoryTelling
Relationships play a key role in the context of the "Grand Challenges" (Future Earth, H2020) - both in the context of sustainable development and the exchange of knowledge. Citizen Science depends on the engagement of citizens and builds upon trustful relationships between all people involved in the processes of knowledge generation. Dialogues exchange knowledge, ideas or opinions. Dialogues also trigger discourses and are essential to reach amicable agreements. The facets of the goals and impacts of dialogues are prominent in many citizen science projects. As a matter of facts, without dialogues citizen science would not be successful. We hosted a workshop to shed light on the scientific and societal values of dialogues in citizen science and expand this understanding towards additional narratives.
Date: June, 6th 2018
Location: University of Geneva, COST Citizen Science Workshopday
Organizing Team
Anett Richter (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany)
Didone Frigerio (University of Vienna, Austria)
Andrea Sieber (Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt, Austria)
Participants
Dario Martinelli (Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania), Victoria Miczajka (University of Leipzig, Germany), Nora Salas (University of Barcelona, Spain), Hannah Stockwell (Mapping for Change, UK), Francesca de Chiara (Digital Common Lab, Italy), Luciano Massetti, IBIMET CNR, Italy)
Aims
- To develop confidences to apply storytelling in citizen sciences build upon shared experiences from storytelling in citizen science presented by the panelists and participants
- To investigate the diversity of structures in storytelling in citizen science with the participants
- To evaluate the manifold potentials of storytelling in citizen science and the impacts of storytelling together as a group
Summarized Results
We expressed the core idea of a storytelling application in a Citizen Science project by means of clay sculpture and then shared and located it with all participants. Nine sculptures were created and presented. The majority of objects was constructed in a three-dimensional way and contained concrete objects that were associated to a situation, a project and observation or feeling experienced during or after storytelling in citizen science.
The analysis revealed a diverse pattern about the functionality of storytelling in citizen science. Many stories are addressed for and with communities along the gradient of storytelling as a method and storytelling as on object. A large majority of the approaches presented by the participants apply storytelling as a method to transport messages, to educate and to engage in science.
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