Guest editors
Wietske Medema, McGill University, Canada; Jan Adamowski, McGill University, Canada; Julien Malard, IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement), France; Johanna Dipple, McGill University, Canada; Joel Harms, McGill University, Canada
Scope and aims
Developments in digital technologies for data collection, processing, transmission, and visualization provide increasing opportunities to create and exchange information and knowledge for water governance. Digital citizen science platforms and tools provide support systems that include data repositories and a user interface, and are developed to communicate observations, simulate environmental processes, and provide virtual spaces that enable users to participate directly in the social and scientific processes. The focus of these platforms has so far been on integrating and communicating scientific databases and models. In contrast, local, experiential and Indigenous knowledge perspectives have been absent.
Significant opportunities exist to advance these platforms in ways that they can function as actionable knowledge co-creation platforms from which diverse user-groups can benefit. The goal of this Special Issue is to bring together state-of-the-art research on new methods, both social and technical (software), to use digital technologies to improve Indigenous perspectives in citizen science and participatory modelling of socio-ecological systems from around the world. Examples of applicable research could include participatory modelling methodologies suited for less-literate stakeholders, case studies that use Indigenous knowledge and perspective to direct modelling efforts, and citizen science tools (including digital tools) with a significant applicability to Indigenous priorities (e.g., participatory mapping). We especially welcome contributions that (1) include diverse research teams (both in terms of discipline, as well as culture), (2) include one or more case studies, and (3) provide and apply clear methodologies for evaluating the societal or participatory impact of the research project.
Submission Timeline
If you are interested in participating, please email your contact details and intended contribution (title, authors, Extended Abstract) to wietske.medema@mcgill.ca by 30 November 2022. The Extended Abstracts are 1,000 words plus a bibliography that indicates the literature that the paper will build upon.
After reviewing the submitted Extended Abstracts, the guest editors will invite selected author teams to submit Full Papers (around 10-12 journal pages long). The expected deadline for submission is 1 February 2023.