Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation - Baka Story, 2021

Hoyte, Simon (2024). Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation - Baka Story, 2021. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857221

The challenge of Extreme Citizen Science is to enable any community, regardless of literacy or education, to initiate, run, and use the result of a local citizen science activity, so they can be empowered to address and solve issues that concern them. Citizen Science is understood here as the participation of members of the public in a scientific project, from shaping the question, to collecting the data, analysing it and using the knowledge that emerges from it. Over the past 3 years, under the leadership of Prof. Muki Haklay, the Extreme Citizen Science programme at UCL has demonstrated that non-literate people and those with limited technical literacy can participate in formulating research questions and collecting the data that is important to them. Extreme Citizen Science: Analysis and Visualisation (ECSAnVis) takes the next ambitious step – developing geographical analysis and visualisation tools that can be used, successfully, by people with limited literacy, in a culturally appropriate way. At the core of the proposal is the imperative to see technology as part of socially embedded practices and culture and avoid ‘technical fixes’.
The development of novel, socially and culturally accessible Geographic Information System (GIS) interface and underlying algorithms, will provide communities with tools to support them to combine their local environmental knowledge with scientific analysis to improve environmental management. In an exciting collaboration with local indigenous partners on case studies in critically important, yet fragile and menaced ecosystems in the Amazon and the Congo-basin, our network of anthropologists, ecologists, computer scientists, designers and electronic engineers will develop innovative hardware, software and participatory methodologies that will enable any community to use this innovative GIS.
The research will contribute to the fields of geography, geographic information science, anthropology, development, agronomy and conservation.

Data description (abstract)

The collection includes the audio recording of Mokila story by Bruno Ewundi, a Baka elder in south-eastern Cameroon. The story describes the belief by the indigenous Baka people that hunters called Tuma can shape-shift into other animals, specifically in this account, elephants. The elder outlines an instance of this. Oral consent was gained to share this story in a non-anonymous fashion.
The broader study was a 5-year project incorporating both ethnographic work and applied socio-technical work. The objective was to develop appropriate mobile technology which can enable any community, anywhere, to collect and analyse data on a range of socio-ecological issues on their own terms. The motivation for this work is the urgent need for more data on social and environmental aspects in every context around the world in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and other aspirations of social and ecological wellbeing. Specifically, the project collaborated with remote indigenous communities in Africa and South America who expressed great interest in documenting and sharing their extensive knowledge using the Sapelli digital tool developed by the team. Through this work, the project worked towards addressing issues of hegemonic research practices, epistemological hierarchies, indigenous rights, and equitable conservation.

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