Beyond the Grassroots: Two Trajectories of “Citizen Sciencization” in Environmental Governance

摘要: Grassroots, bottom-up citizen science is a burgeoning form of public engagement with science, in which citizens mobilize scientific data to address local and global concerns. Contrary top-down projects collect for experts, these grassroots initiatives typically unfold do-it-ourselves fashion, thereby challenging formally-sanctioned, expert-centric approaches. This article illustrates points through comparative analysis two potentially paradigmatic sites environmental science: Safecast (radiation pollution; Japan) CuriousNoses (air Flanders, Belgium). These cases are selected on the basis their anchors self-organized communities, each case initiated by instead formal institutions. Adopting relational account as being shaped both imperatives, we draw out key features (defining moments, actors, discourses, devices) constitution networks credible, influential actors affairs governance. We introduce notion “citizen sciencization” way understanding exploring processes against backdrop changing science-society relationships Japan Europe.