Sarah Blacker (Author)
Kimura, Aya Hirata (Author)
Kinchy, Abby J. (Author)
Social Studies of Science
Volume: 51
Issue: 5
Pages: 780-796
Amid rising interest in participatory research, some industries have recently begun to practice public relations citizen science (PRCS). Unlike citizen science and crowdsourcing projects that generate raw materials for product development, PRCS benefits capitalist firms primarily by improving their public image and deflecting accusations of causing harm. Three cases illustrate how PRCS works: (1) a growing assortment of citizen science projects associated with Antarctic tourism, (2) an initiative to document biodiversity, linked to Canada’s oil and gas industry, and (3) a study sponsored by Biology Fortified, a nonprofit organization that works to communicate positive information about agricultural biotechnology. Scientists and research organizations may have legitimate reasons for entering into these partnerships, but PRCS can benefit industries in problematic ways. First, by supporting environmental science, PRCS can attach a ‘sustainable’ image to a polluting industry, without changing its core practices. Second, PRCS can accumulate data and steer volunteers’ observations in ways that undermine claims about the harms caused by the industry’s practices or products. Finally, in some cases, PRCS organizers hope to induce people to view an industry more ‘rationally’ than those who make ‘emotional’ or ‘ideological’ claims about its harms.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Adam Rome;
(Spring 2019)
DuPont and the Limits of Corporate Environmentalism
(/isis/citation/CBB084779699/)
Article
Courtney Addison;
Hallam Stevens;
(May 2022)
Crowdfunding Conservation Science: Tracing the Participatory Dynamics of Native Parrot Genome Sequencing
(/isis/citation/CBB774118711/)
Article
Petra Benyei;
Manuel Pardo-de-Santayana;
Laura Aceituno-Mata;
Laura Calvet-Mir;
María Carrascosa-García;
Marta Rivera-Ferre;
Antonio Perdomo-Molina;
Victoria Reyes-García;
(July 2021)
Participation in Citizen Science: Insights from the CONECT-e Case Study
(/isis/citation/CBB840403823/)
Article
Christelle Gramaglia;
François Mélard;
(2019)
Looking for the Cosmopolitical Fish: Monitoring Marine Pollution with Anglers and Congers in the Gulf of Fos, Southern France
(/isis/citation/CBB276214571/)
Article
Chris Hesselbein;
(2023)
Kickstarting science? Crowdfunded research, public engagement, and the participatory condition
(/isis/citation/CBB886006696/)
Article
Steven B. Emery;
Hank A. J. Mulder;
Lynn J. Frewer;
(May 2015)
Maximizing the Policy Impacts of Public Engagement: A European Study
(/isis/citation/CBB079889535/)
Article
Cook, Brian R.;
Kesby, Mike;
Fazey, Ioan;
Spray, Chris;
(October 2013)
The persistence of ‘normal’ catchment management despite the participatory turn: Exploring the power effects of competing frames of reference
(/isis/citation/CBB350967664/)
Article
Barbara L. Allen;
(November 2018)
Strongly Participatory Science and Knowledge Justice in an Environmentally Contested Region
(/isis/citation/CBB069762669/)
Article
Dawn Nafus;
(2024)
Unclearing the air: Data’s unexpected limitations for environmental advocacy
(/isis/citation/CBB124075338/)
Article
Aaron Panofsky;
Joan Donovan;
(October 2019)
Genetic ancestry testing among white nationalists: From identity repair to citizen science
(/isis/citation/CBB869271385/)
Book
Rachel Emma Rothschild;
(2019)
Poisonous Skies: Acid Rain and the Globalization of Pollution
(/isis/citation/CBB725120545/)
Book
Christopher W. Wells;
(2018)
Environmental Justice in Postwar America: A Documentary Reader
(/isis/citation/CBB614616258/)
Book
Theodor Seuss Geisel;
(1971)
The Lorax: [50th Anniversary Edition]
(/isis/citation/CBB689612311/)
Book
Elio Frescani;
(2020)
Energia, cultura e comunicazione. Storia e politica dell’Eni fra stampa e televisione (1955-1976)
(/isis/citation/CBB019719611/)
Article
Jason Chilvers;
Matthew Kearnes;
(2020)
Remaking Participation in Science and Democracy
(/isis/citation/CBB535342199/)
Article
Lo, Yin Yueh;
Huang, Chun-Ju;
Peters, Hans Peter;
(December 2019)
Do Organizational Interests Interfere with Public Communication of Science? An Explorative Study of Public Relations of Scientific Organizations in Taiwan
(/isis/citation/CBB566958394/)
Article
You, Zhanhong;
Liu, Dun;
(2005)
On the Early Experience of the Pugwash Movement and Its Significance
(/isis/citation/CBB000630895/)
Article
Anna Krzywoszynska;
Watson Matt;
Alastair Buckley;
Prue Chiles;
Nicky Gregson;
Helen Holmes;
Jose Mawyin;
(September 2018)
Opening Up the Participation Laboratory: The Cocreation of Publics and Futures in Upstream Participation
(/isis/citation/CBB795838743/)
Article
Hadrien Macq;
Céline Parotte;
Pierre Delvenne;
(2021)
Exploring Frictions of Participatory Innovation between Sites and Scales
(/isis/citation/CBB771835349/)
Article
Palmira Fontes da Costa;
(2022)
Gender and botany in early nineteenth-century Portugal: The circle of the Marquise of Alorna
(/isis/citation/CBB087814611/)
Be the first to comment!