This article advocates for a closer study of the forms of citizenship nurtured among
individual participants in citizen science (CS) projects by highlighting some salient features
of CS in China. Through a detailed examination of the experiences of students participating
in the CS activities of a Chinese environmental NGO, it proposes that attention to CS as a
means of democratizing science should be complemented by a similar attention to the ways in
which CS fosters “scientific-environmental citizenship” (Irwin, 2015; Dobson 2010). The
article argues that these emergent forms of citizenship may be revealed by focusing on the
experiences, perspectives, values and skills acquired by participants, and the specific polity in
which CS initiatives are situated. This attention to the development of scientificenvironmental citizenship as an outcome of CS is particularly valuable where democratic
participation is otherwise constrained, but also yields a more nuanced understanding of
citizenship enacted through CS in democratic contexts
