Soil publics: regenerating relations with urban soils through citizen science
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Date
2024
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Abstract
In contexts of regulatory neglect, it often falls to concerned individuals and community groups to identify and reduce people's exposure to health-threatening pollutants in urban soils. The Our Soil project, based in Troy, New York (U.S.A.) proposed that engaging people in a "do-it-together" process of scientific inquiry could cultivate both appreciation of soil's value and urgency to protect people from toxic soil pollution. In this paper, we develop the concept of "soil publics" and use it to critically reflect on how Our Soil used participatory research methods to measure urban soil pollution, exchange and value local knowledge, and cultivate a sense of concern for soil as a public issue. Soil publics come together through collective participatory practices, such as community gardening or, in this case, citizen science. This paper argues that when citizen science is pursued with a focus on producing soil publics, it is not just a means of collecting data about soil; it is part of the process of recognising past harms and transforming human-soil relations.Key Policy HighlightsEfforts to increase public awareness and appreciation of the vitality of soil to ecosystem health should also address soil pollution as a matter of environmental justice."Do-it-together" soil testing can be an effective means of both raising the issue of soil pollution and forming a public that wants to address it.Citizen science can be more than a means of collecting data about soil; it can be part of the process of recognising past harms and transforming human-soil relations.
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Keywords
Soil, pollution, publics, citizen science, lead, arsenic