Co-creating Social Change through Citizen Science: Systematic Literature Analysis

Abstract

Citizen science encompasses partnerships between professional scientists and society, opening opportunities for more active citizen engagement in co-creation of social change. Members of the scientific community and citizens are starting to experiment with digital and offline resources to collaborate with each other to solve societal problems. This article aims to discuss the possible role of citizen science in co-creating social change in society or local community settings. The article is based on systematic literature analysis. The findings* show that co‐created research might have a particularly strong impact on the wealth of society and wider outcomes in the local or regional settings. However, such cases are not very common yet. Although academic research on co-creative approaches to citizen science and stakeholder engagement is growing at a steady rate, it remains a relatively emergent domain.