Unfolding material constraints and opportunities in biodiversity citizen science information practices

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline an approach for understanding how information practices in biodiversity citizen science are enabled and constrained through participants’ interactions with material objects such as cameras, artificial intelligence-supported smartphone applications and information systems. The approach draws on the theory of objectual practice; how knowledge is constructed iteratively through interaction with epistemic objects. Epistemic objects are understood as objects sustained by projections of knowledge, open for interpretation and question-generation, rather than clearly defined things. The approach is empirically contextualised through a study of biodiversity citizen science activities in relation to a bioblitz, a short-term, intensive period of species observations in a given geographical setting. Three empirical units of analysis are to be studied: binoculars, cameras, and loupes for observing species; field guides, identification keys and smartphone applications for identifying species; and standardising, large-scale information systems for reporting identified observations. The approach opens up for studying how material objects enable and constrain biodiversity citizen science information practices. The objectual practice approach in relation to a multifaceted empirical setting such as biodiversity citizen science extends sociomaterial aspects to citizen science studies by enabling practice-oriented observation and trace investigations of large-scale phenomena.