Alexander introduces himself and explains why his name is on the podcast: he shares the widespread criticism of academia and scientists through the "ivory tower" metaphor, to which he can relate to based on previous experiences in significant research projects. He argues about how the topic is relevant, sharing news items from political speeches and rhetoric, i.e. anti-elitism and "anti-scientism". Therefore, he outlines the critical mission of COESO as well as starts asking questions about the latter: what is citizen science? And why does it matter today in our societies? Can it have an impact on the way we understand our world?<br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

Entering the rabbit hole

Exploring Citizen Science is a podcast that explores the world of Citizen Science, as a discipline and philosophy. Host and journalist Alexander Damiano Ricci travels across Europe and holds interviews with researchers and project managers who are part of the COESO research project. Alexander Damiano embarks on this journey driven by the feeling that, over the past few years, science and experts appear to have experienced a sort of backlash from society. In fact, the host believes that many citizens distrust experts and scientific knowledge out front. Yet, the discipline of Citizen Science says it aims at opening the doors of science to everyone. Within Citizen Science projects citizens can become knowledge producers themselves, just like researchers. So the question is: can Citizen Science help to (re)connect research and society?   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.