"Smart citizens" stem the flow of inclusive citizen science

“In a world where water crisis are often referred to as water governance crisis – and the traditional single decision-making authority of governments has often been replaced by a multi-level governance system – the topic of stakeholder engagement in the water sector has attracted increasing interest. Indeed, the internationally recognised OECD Water Governance Initiative considers stakeholder engagement as a key principle of good governance, acknowledging the important role that stakeholders can have in respect to an effective, efficient and inclusive water management.
Perhaps one of the most interesting twenty-first century manifestations of stakeholder engagement is citizen science. Although the participation of the general public in the generation of scientific knowledge has existed for centuries, a closer look to this form of co-creation today is highly interesting for, at least, two reasons:
(i) in the past few years citizen science projects have grown spectacularly in number, scale and scope; and, (ii) this ‘new dawn’ of citizen science is taking place in a time by some described as a ‘post-truth’ era, in which scientists and professionals are increasingly confronted with citizens who seem mainly led by emotions and personal belief, and have little eye for objective facts.”

(Citaat: Brouwer, S. – “Smart citizens” stem the flow of inclusive citizen science – www.bangthetable.com (2018)17 september – Website 19 september 2018)