2025/06/25 by Kirsten Vegt, Janneke Elberse, Bastiaan T. Rutjens +1 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Animal and Plant Science Education #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Species Distribution and Climate Change
paper · doi:10.1177/09636625251338190
openalex publication_date 2025/06/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Socially robust knowledge is scientific knowledge accepted by society for its contextual relevance. Citizen science, involving non-professional scientists, offers a promising approach to developing such knowledge. This study examines how citizen science fosters socially robust knowledge through a case-study on noise pollution's impact on health and well-being in the Dutch village of America. Citizen scientists partnered with researchers of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment to study train noise, employing diverse data-collection methods. Interviews with participants revealed trust in this approach and outcomes, contrasting with conventional noise-pollution research. The integration of extended expertise and real-world context, coupled with the project's iterative feedback loop, ensured that findings were accurate and locally relevant. This case-study underscores citizen science's potential to create relevant and adaptable policy-relevant science, offering concrete insights into the key elements that contribute to the social robustness of scientific outcomes.