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Objectives

We are experiencing a moment of effervescence in citizen participation in the generation of environmental knowledge and innovation. In recent years, this enthusiasm has crystallized into the citizen technoscience movement, a broad and heterogeneous collective focused on the use of scientific methods and simple, low-cost, locally rooted technical devices, with the aim of gaining the ability to understand (through the production of knowledge) and/or intervene (through different types of technical devices) in matters of environmental concern.

Citizen technoscience has enormous potential to effectively democratize access to scientific knowledge and technological innovation, promoting the transformation towards more sustainable and equitable modes of socio-environmental organization. However, it currently faces significant challenges that are diminishing its impact, including issues such as fragmentation, lack of continuity, improvisation, budgetary constraints, discrimination, and others.

Based on an interdisciplinary social science approach, the Millennium Center on Citizen Technoscience for Socio-Environmental Transformation (CITEC) will map, analyze, and experiment with projects and initiatives in Chile that are adopting citizen technoscience approaches to the production of scientific knowledge and/or the development of technologies focused on the socio-environmental crisis.

Our specific objectives are:

Record and analyze the movement of citizen technoscience in Chile, especially in relation to the practical, social, and regulatory challenges that currently limit its impact.
Cooperate with key public and private actors in carrying out experimental interventions focused on exploring alternatives that mitigate or overcome some of these challenges.
Position citizen technoscience and its study as a central axis in processes of effective transformation towards more sustainable and just societies through publications, events, human capital training, and the establishment of national and international networks. Through this work, we seek to make CITEC a center of national, regional, and international excellence in the study, debate, and co-creation of citizen technoscience in the global south.