Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural Areas
Citizen observatories (COs) are socio-technical initiatives that seek to engage citizens interested in environmental issues via digital applications to gather ecological data, drawing on participatory approaches. While CO projects conducted in the Global North have successfully engaged citizens, les...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Ubiquity Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice |
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| Online Access: | https://account.theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/index.php/up-j-cstp/article/view/695 |
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| author | Chaminda Rathnayake Somya Joshi Teresa Cerratto-Pargman |
| author_facet | Chaminda Rathnayake Somya Joshi Teresa Cerratto-Pargman |
| author_sort | Chaminda Rathnayake |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Citizen observatories (COs) are socio-technical initiatives that seek to engage citizens interested in environmental issues via digital applications to gather ecological data, drawing on participatory approaches. While CO projects conducted in the Global North have successfully engaged citizens, less is known about how they engage with citizens in rural areas in the Global South. Herein, we address this knowledge gap by exploring conditions for designing COs in rural areas in Sri Lanka. We conducted a case study to examine how rural communities that reside close to industrial centers make sense of their surroundings, with a specific focus on air quality. With the aid of qualitative analysis of ten semi-structured interviews, we identify primary collective community practices that contribute to local air quality knowledge. The study contributes to discourses on conditions for designing COs by suggesting potential design features for community science participation and sense-making. Our findings indicate that most often, the citizen science practices identified and discussed by the literature on COs and human-computer interaction are at odds with rural communities’ priorities and sensing praxis in countries such as Sri Lanka. Thus, we argue for engaging with communities and their specific collective practices rather than with individuals to design COs in rural areas in Sri Lanka and in similar contexts. To give socio-technical initiatives such as COs a chance outside of the Global North, attention must be paid to how citizens experience, sense, and make sense of the local environment as part of a collective effort. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e9132b479e3d4031926462ebb8c035a9 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2057-4991 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Citizen Science: Theory and Practice |
| spelling | doaj-art-e9132b479e3d4031926462ebb8c035a92025-02-11T05:31:54ZengUbiquity PressCitizen Science: Theory and Practice2057-49912025-01-011016610.5334/cstp.695677Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural AreasChaminda Rathnayake0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4496-515XSomya Joshi1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8106-6869Teresa Cerratto-Pargman2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6389-0467University of Stockholm, SE; NSBM Green UniversityStockholm Environment InstituteUniversity of StockholmCitizen observatories (COs) are socio-technical initiatives that seek to engage citizens interested in environmental issues via digital applications to gather ecological data, drawing on participatory approaches. While CO projects conducted in the Global North have successfully engaged citizens, less is known about how they engage with citizens in rural areas in the Global South. Herein, we address this knowledge gap by exploring conditions for designing COs in rural areas in Sri Lanka. We conducted a case study to examine how rural communities that reside close to industrial centers make sense of their surroundings, with a specific focus on air quality. With the aid of qualitative analysis of ten semi-structured interviews, we identify primary collective community practices that contribute to local air quality knowledge. The study contributes to discourses on conditions for designing COs by suggesting potential design features for community science participation and sense-making. Our findings indicate that most often, the citizen science practices identified and discussed by the literature on COs and human-computer interaction are at odds with rural communities’ priorities and sensing praxis in countries such as Sri Lanka. Thus, we argue for engaging with communities and their specific collective practices rather than with individuals to design COs in rural areas in Sri Lanka and in similar contexts. To give socio-technical initiatives such as COs a chance outside of the Global North, attention must be paid to how citizens experience, sense, and make sense of the local environment as part of a collective effort.https://account.theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/index.php/up-j-cstp/article/view/695citizen scienceair pollutionair qualitycitizen observatories |
| spellingShingle | Chaminda Rathnayake Somya Joshi Teresa Cerratto-Pargman Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural Areas Citizen Science: Theory and Practice citizen science air pollution air quality citizen observatories |
| title | Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural Areas |
| title_full | Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural Areas |
| title_fullStr | Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural Areas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural Areas |
| title_short | Exploring Conditions for Designing Citizen Observatories in Sri Lanka: The Case of Air Quality in Rural Areas |
| title_sort | exploring conditions for designing citizen observatories in sri lanka the case of air quality in rural areas |
| topic | citizen science air pollution air quality citizen observatories |
| url | https://account.theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/index.php/up-j-cstp/article/view/695 |
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