Field of Focus III - Transfer CiSAr - Citizen Science in Archaeology

Project Lead: Dr. Antonia Davidovic-Walther

Civic engagement is increasingly coming into focus, as it contributes to the transfer of knowledge between academia and society and to a democratisation of academia by involving non-academics in academic processes on a partnership basis. However, it also enables the processing of ever larger amounts of data, which are created, for example, through the use of new digital technologies. Recently, models of Citizen Science have been increasingly taken up in the archaeological sciences, e.g. by non-academics working on excavations or evaluating digital data such as satellite images. 
In the context of a solution-oriented approach, the project aims at the evaluation of best practice examples of Citizen Science. By identifying successful procedures proposals for future projects can be developed. At the same time, this is linked to fundamental research in the form of an epistemological analysis of knowledge production and transfer: which objects and practices enable the circulation of knowledge? How do demarcation mechanisms between academia and society work? 

Several case studies representing different dimensions of Citizen Science practices will be analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social research, primarily qualitative interviews, questionnaires and participatory observation.