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Citizen Science, Anthropology, and Intercultural ­Transdisciplinarity: Connecting School Students in Greenland and Austria on the Topic of Snow

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Elixhauser, S., Gusenleitner, T. Citizen Science, Anthropology, and Intercultural ­Transdisciplinarity: Connecting School Students in Greenland and Austria on the Topic of Snow. Sociologus, 99999(), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2025.1461401
Elixhauser, Sophie and Gusenleitner, Theresa "Citizen Science, Anthropology, and Intercultural ­Transdisciplinarity: Connecting School Students in Greenland and Austria on the Topic of Snow" Sociologus 99999., 2025, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2025.1461401
Elixhauser, Sophie/Gusenleitner, Theresa (2025): Citizen Science, Anthropology, and Intercultural ­Transdisciplinarity: Connecting School Students in Greenland and Austria on the Topic of Snow, in: Sociologus, vol. 99999, iss. , 1-22, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2025.1461401
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Citizen Science, Anthropology, and Intercultural ­Transdisciplinarity: Connecting School Students in Greenland and Austria on the Topic of Snow

Elixhauser, Sophie | Gusenleitner, Theresa

Sociologus, Online First : pp. 1–22

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Publisher Name
Duncker & Humblot
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3790/soc.2025.1461401
Language
Multiple languages
Pages
22
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closed-access
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Author Details

Sophie Elixhauser, University of Vienna, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna.

Theresa Gusenleitner (joint first author), University of Vienna, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna.

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Abstract

Citizen science is research conducted with the participation of the public with a view to democratising academia and facilitating large-scale and long-term research. Citizen science is currently gaining popularity, particularly in the natural sciences, yet the relationship between citizen science and anthropology is less clear-cut. This can be attributed to anthropology’s long experience in working with non-academic stakeholders and to the democratic and ontological turns resulting in various similar and sometimes overlapping participatory methods. Drawing on the authors’ anthropological engagement in an interdisciplinary citizen science project collaborating with climatologists and school students from Greenland and Austria, we explore the value of citizen science for anthropology, and vice versa. While some of the basic premises of citizen science are not new, we argue that anthropology stands to benefit from citizen science in two ways. First, citizen science offers elaborate methods to facilitate the involvement of a potentially wider public and may further discourses about public anthropology. Second, it can be of great value in interdisciplinary projects, providing a shared framework for both the social and natural scientists involved. Anthropology in turn may refine citizen science with its reflective perspective on epistemic and ontological questions.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Sophie Elixhauser / Theresa Gusenleitner: Citizen Science, Anthropology, and Intercultural Transdisciplinarity: Connecting School Students in Greenland and Austria on the Topic of Snow 1
Abstract 1
1. Introduction 1
2. Snow2School 4
2.1 Our Research Partners in Greenland and Austria 5
2.2 Citizen Science in Snow2School 7
3. Junior Researchers Exploring Snow Changes in Greenland and Austria 8
3.1 Citizen Science in Eisenerz: Implementing Snow2School 8
3.2 Establishing Snow2School in Uummannaq 11
3.3 Intercultural Exchange between Eisenerz and Uummannaq 13
4. Citizen Science, Transdisciplinary Research, and Anthropology: Lessons to be Learnt? 14
5. Conclusion 17
References 18

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