The role of the digital anthropologist in citizen science and public participation mapping projects: A case study or two

This chapter looks specifically at how a digital anthropologist can approach citizen science projects. It focuses on the role of the authors as anthropologists in two different projects which involved participatory mapping, using digital mapping platforms in particular. It introduces the idea of citizen science with a focus on public participation mapping. The term ‘citizen science’ has multiple origins and refers to a range of differing concepts. The term gained an increased poignancy in the second half of the twentieth century as the sciences became increasingly the preserve of specialist and elite scientists and organisations and doing science became radically transformed through the processes of professionalisation and the ‘laboratory revolution’. Public participation geographic information systems are intended to bring the practice of geographic information systems (GIS) mapping to the local level to promote inclusive knowledge practices.