Abstrack:
Citizen Science refers to scientific work undertaken by members of the general public, often in collaboration with or under the direction of professional scientists and scientific institutions. Whilst Place-based Citizen Science (PBCS) is linked to the idea of the public participation in science. It places emphasis on a co-productive or participatory approach, the integration of local knowledge and values, and the application of reflexivity for tailoring environmental citizen science to place. The paper focuses on four substantives ‘projects’ in the preparatory stages of our PBCS programme. Using these examples, we set out an agenda for PBCS as it was applied to our programme for watershed conservation in Malaysia. The PBCS employed incorporated both ‘wide’ and ‘sharp’ dimensions of place. The ‘sharp’ dimension focuses on the role of local meanings, values and knowledge accessed through participatory methods. ‘Wide’ learning, in this case reflects on developments of citizen science in Asia taking lessons from a global knowledge exchange between Japan and Malaysia. We end with the argument that we need to open out a research agenda to address concerns that PBCS is situated at the weaker or softer version of citizen science, focusing instead on how place-based considerations may pragmatically improve the field’s robustness in terms of knowledge and practice.
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