There is SUN! For anyone that hasn’t been living through this new Zealand ‘summer’ you might not understand the significance of this. We finally (only two months in…!) have some proper summer weather. Nothing better than reading awesome books in the sun 🙂

It was great to participate in a webinar with Muki Haklay, (Professor of Geographical Information Science in the Dept of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London) earlier this week. Wow, he is exceptionally knowledgeable around the concepts that make up citizen science and someone that I will definitely need to get in touch with.

His talk reminded me of the influences of Anthropology on social science research, which I just happen to have one of my undergrad degrees in!

Some of the lessons from anthropology that I want to include going forward are:

• Not ruling out a case study because it is in a non-English speaking country, just because it is easier
• Knowing your place while undertaking cross cultural research
• Centring the research around the participant
• Placing the citizen as the expert
• Giving something meaningful back to the case study groups
• Learning about their project in their language (using an interpreter if needed).

I am really excited to do case study research!!! I’m starting to get a little nervous at the complexity it involves, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Need to be mindful of the challenges of time/capacity/budget when choosing the case studies though.

So much to ponder…

Lisa xx