Constructing Scientific Communities: Citizen Science in the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries

Abstract

This Perspective article reflects on the recent launch of ‘Constructing Scientific Communities: Citizen Science in the 19th and 21st Centuries’ (http://conscicom.org), a collaboration between the Universities of Oxford and Leicester in partnership with the Natural History Museum, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Royal Society. It is a multi-strand project, bringing together historians, literary scholars, and contemporary science practitioners, which has been awarded a large grant in the Arts and Humanities Research Council's ‘Science in Culture’ theme. At its heart lie questions about public involvement in science, the amateur/professional divide, and the possibilities of drawing on understanding of the role of journals in the science and information revolution of the nineteenth century in order to enhance science participation in the digital age.