InSIS, Guillem Camprodon at Oxford University

by Marco Sanalitro     Posted on February 23, 2017

14th February 2017 Guillem Camprodon, our expert in Physical Computing and Smart Citizen Project Leader, spoke about DIY Science and Smart Citizenship at University of Oxford.

“The Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) at Oxford University invited us to present the Smart Citizen project as part of a series of seminars around the Promises and Perils of DIY Science. The session was chair by Steve Rayner, director of the institute, and it was a really nice opportunity to discuss our work on Participatory Sensing and Citizen Science we have been carrying out since 2013 with the Oxford community.” by Guillem Camprodon

In the 21st century, the production of scientific knowledge has moved beyond academic or industrial laboratories to online communities, low-rent “hackspaces”, personal wearable devices, and low-cost kits ordered from the internet. Does DIY science provide a more democratic, relevant and accountable form of self-guided expertise? Or are authority and control simply shifted and permeating the production of DIY activities in unexplored ways? How are quality and outcomes assessed? Like an ever-evolving ecosystem, knowledge production and use is expanding into new niches and functioning in creative ways among new sets of actors.

This seminar explored the changing ecologies of knowledge and the implications of the public taking the production of science “into their own hands”.

for more information: InSIS Seminar Series - ‘Science in Your Own Hands: Promises and Perils of DIY Science’