Citizen Science as Contested Practice in Environmental Governance: Lessons from Post-Fukushima Japan

The rapid emergence of citizen science initiatives in areas such as mobility, conservation, and pollution monitoring raises challenges and opportunities for global environmental governance, inviting reflection on questions, such as: What is environmental citizen science for? Which data matter? Who benefits from public engagement in science? In this presentation, I draw on fieldwork conducted in Japan after the 2011 Fukushima disaster to provide possible responses to these questions. I highlight how citizen science in radiation monitoring in Japan takes on distinct forms, which defy conventional – often Western – categorizations, such as public participation in science, crowdsourcing, and science democratization. I argue that it is both more accurate and fruitful to conceive of citizen science as a set of varied practices through which participants seek to redefine the terms of scientific and civic membership – often through political contestation and struggle. Drawing attention to these issues underscores the importance of considering how terms and definitions shape the participation of stakeholders (local communities, public authorities, regulators, professional scientists) and allows us to develop new interpretations of citizen engagement with science in culturally and historically sensitive ways.