What is Citizen social Science?
London Prosperity Board research projects are co-designed and carried out with citizen social scientists - people who live and work in the neighbourhoods where research is taking place, and who are trained and employed by IGP to work as members of the research team.
Citizen science is well-established as a way of involving the public in large-scale scientific research, where people take part in volunteer monitoring and crowd-sourced projects.
IGP’s approach to citizen science is different. We train local people to work as social scientists in their own communities. They are trained in research ethics, qualitative and quantitative methods, and data analysis. Our citizen scientists work with IGP’s academic researchers to design research that captures local experiences and reflects what matters to local people and communities. They are trained to design projects, collect and analyse data, interpret the results and share information
Our citizen social scientists bring a wide range of experiences, insights and expertise to research. This is the kind of information decision-makers need to understand what prosperity means to different people in different places and the strengths, needs and challenges in different communities.
Learn More
IGP runs a Citizen Science Working Group with London Prosperity Board partners who want to develop capacity to support and work with Citizen Scientists. We meet once per quarter to share information about our respective projects, co-design tools for excellent research outcomes, and provide training support.
If you are interested in learning more about the Citizen Social Science and how we work, please visit the Citizen Science Academy site.
You can also see the zines produced as part of the first round of qualitative research that took place in the Prosperity in East London 2021-2031 Longitudinal Study.