Citizen Science with and within the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Guest editors’ preface

The guest editors’ preface to the special issue of Etica&Politica/Ethics&Politics “Citizen Science with and within the Social Sciences and the Humanities” discusses the background of citizen science development in Europe with a specific focus on the social sciences and the humanities. It traces the challenges faced in giving visibility to the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in the citizen science field, and highlights the advantages of using an “umbrella term” to unify citizen science and participatory research practices across disciplines

Design issues in Human-centered AI for Marginalized People

Designing for migrants and asylum seekers requires the involvement of the whole society to improve the integration of citizens coming from countries with different cultures, religions, and life patterns. The design and development of AI companions for a personalized access to services is the horizon chosen to support and improve the inclusion of migrants and refugees both for the effectiveness of the services provided by public administration and local organizations, and for the quality of life of migrants and refugees. AI-based services are at the heart of the Digital Companion for migrants and asylum seekers designed to support more effective communication between public administrations and migrants. The human-centered, iterative, participative and critical design approach proved to be valuable to address the heterogeneous needs of the end-users as well as of the local service providers. Concrete issues in defining, testing, and refining the AI are discussed in view of provoking an impact on the whole society and towards a scenario of full development and upscaling

The city of digital social innovators

The concept of digital social innovation (DSI) refers to a fast-growing set of initiatives aimed at providing innovative solutions to social problems and needs by deploying the potential of the social web and digital media. Despite having been often interpreted as synonymous with digitally enhanced social innovation, we explain here why, in consideration of its epistemological and socio-political potentialities, we understand it as an interdisciplinary set of practices able to interpret and support the changes of a society that is more and more intrinsically virtual and physical at the same time. Notably, we briefly discuss how DSI processes can be functionally mobilized in support of different socio-political projects, ranging from the mainstream neoliberal to the revolutionary ones. Eventually, we provide a synopsis of the articles included in this thematic issue, by aggregating them accordingly to the main stakeholders promoting the DSI projects, being more bottom-up oriented or more institutional-based

A participatory, multidimensional and modular impact assessment methodology for citizen science projects

This paper presents a multidimensional methodology for assessing the scientific, social, economic, political and environmental impacts of citizens science (CS) projects. Besides these five areas of impact, the methodology considers also the transformative potential of the CS projects, i.e. the degree to which a CS project can help to change, alter, or replace current systems, the business-as-usual, in one or more fields such as science production or environmental protection. The methodology is designed to be modular and flexible so to adapt to the specificities of different CS projects and offers operational tools for its use by non-experts. The paper also describes the co-design process followed for its development and discusses the main lessons learned as emerged during its testing with 16 citizen science projects

Sguardi diversi: riflessioni e materiali per l’educazione interculturale

Il fenomeno migratorio è ormai una caratteristica strutturale della società italiana; il dibattito sulle seconde e terze generazioni di migranti diviene sempre più attuale e si fa viepiù pressante il bisogno di una strategia integrata per la gestione della diversità culturale e per l’integrazione. Quale approccio all’educazione interculturale possiamo pensare per una scuola che fa quotidianamente esperienza della differenza? Quale spazio può, e deve, avere la lotta alla discriminazione in un momento di crisi economica e politica in cui l`altro è troppo spesso ridotto al ruolo di colpevole predestinato o di rivale nell’accesso a risorse scarse? Quali sono gli strumenti pedagogici a disposizione per favorire la consapevolezza del carattere processuale, storicamente e culturalmente determinato della diversita? ll volume cerca di rispondere a queste domande a partire dalla sperimentazione fatta dal progetto Valeur — Vivre la diversité dans le respect mutuel en Europe (cofinanziato dall’Uni0ne Europea nel quadro del programma Fundamental Rights and Citizenship). L’esperienza qui descritta ha coinvolto tre paesi europei (Italia, Spagna e Portogallo), ventidue scuole e più di quattrocentocinquanta studenti, con l’obiettivo di intraprendere un percorso teorico e pratico volto a mettere al centro la creatività dei giovani coinvolti. lnsegnanti ed educatori hanno accompagnato gli studenti in un percorso che a partire da un dibattito aperto e partecipato su stereotipi e pregiudizi portasse alla realizzazione di prodotti audio visuali antirazzisti. ll racconto delle attività svolte durante i laboratori scolastici è riportato nella seconda parte del volume; nella prima parte, invece, si offre una raccolta di brevi saggi volti ad inquadrare l’educazione interculturale e a tracciare gli approcci didattici usati durante il progetto e pensati come strumenti eflicaci per l’educazione interculturale contemporanea

Students opinions and attitudes toward LGBT persons and rights: Results of a transnational European project

This article presents the research results of the European co-funded project NISO: Fighting Homophobia Through Active Citizenship and Media Education. The project combined research and non-formal education activities in four European countries: Belgium, Estonia, Italy and the Netherlands. The research intended to identify and analyze high school students' opinions about LGBT issues and rights. With a sample of 1,371 students across the four sites, the survey explored students' opinions on homosexuality. Overall, the majority of the sample reported positive views toward homosexuality. Nevertheless, stereotypes about gay men and lesbian women emerged in approximately half of the sample, mainly related to non-conformity with traditional gender roles. Differences among countries emerged regarding attitudes toward LGBT people and the recognition of LGBT rights and appeared to be related to differences in the national context of rights recognition across the four countries