Let's Talk Ambiguity: Citizen science in new and emerging technologies

Citizen science (CS) is a fairly new concept that is rapidly gaining traction in the industrialized democratic world. Although it is often likened to public participation in science, CS takes on many forms and orientations. In this presentation, I link CS developments and practices to the advent of new and emerging technologies (NEST), such as bio- and nanotechnologies. I draw on three Flemish cases of CS linked to NEST to illustrate how CS co-evolves with Flemish and European policy shifts towards responsible innovation governance. The cases serve to highlight how various conceptions of CS enact divergent rationales for public involvement in science and promote competing visions of the volatile relationship between science and society. The clash of CS perspectives within and through NEST produces a highly ambiguous innovation context that is simultaneously characterized by excitement and (pre)caution; public and formal expertise; policy dictates and public dialogue; and deterministic and constructionist views of innovation. How implicated actors (policymakers, scientists, citizens, and other stakeholders) make sense of, and deal with, these ambiguities is one of the key challenges CS faces today.