Thoughts on Street Science
Based on the insights of these two chapters ([1] and [2]), briefly discuss how they are applicable to the topic of your individual paper, the CIRAL project, or any other example of civic intelligence we've discussed in class or that you've heard about elsewhere.
Response to Chapter 6: The Mapping of Local Knowledge
As a “crucial tool for community members,” I think that a community mapping project could influence the public awareness of any community, particularly here in Olympia where participants of the Occupation could use a more effective model for communicating their views on the various issues (both local and national) -that they wish to address. I think a good approach would be to start small with a “street survey” of the area asking for community inquiries, concerns, experiences and any additional input willingly given and based on one's personal or shared perceptions. By accumulating this pool of informal data, members of the occupation and of the overall community could start piecing together their common struggles and by emphasizing the redundancies, could begin to render a “cumulative burden” map. I think with the completion and distribution of such a map an “identity formulation” would slowly take place as a supplement for how demonstrators and occupiers already identify themselves as part of this social movement. However, the boundary between politician's and the supporters of this map and the occupation would surely be reinforced, and I'm not sure whether this would have a positive or negative effect on their efforts. Regardless, I think the resulting “aggregation” of “street science” would have a positive effect on the community, especially if a large body of the public were willing to contribute to this map's design components, use of symbols, context, content, “strategic frame” and revisions of text. Overall, I think this use/interpretation of map-making could serve to visually inform the community members of Olympia, and to organize their attention toward the economic and social issues at hand which the Occupation is striving to address. Cogdev07 16:35, 15 November 2011 (PST)
A core piece that stood out to me is bridging between professionalism and communities. I think the method of harnessing local knowledge that Street Science outlines is a strong tool for bringing out civic intelligence. The tricky piece seems to be framing (there's that darn word again) the information collected through this method in a way that achieves acceptance of findings outside the local community.
I see one of the challenges of civic intelligence as breaking down the idea that professionals are somehow more credible than ordinary citizens. This is a cultural meme with deep roots. Citizen science seems like a great way to eat away at this disempowering idea. When local knowledge is gathered in a way that is relevant to issues professionals overlook due to business interest, oversight, or lack of understanding of local issues, it builds the credibility of civic intelligence. The trick is in the integrity of the process and framing of results (okay I was wrong about framing).
Onemic18 01:44, 16 November 2011 (PST)
