Citizen Observations as Legal Obligations

(Dis)Associations and Representation at the Swedish Land and Environment Court of Appeal

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5338048
AutoresDick Kasperowski (0000-0003-4539-2055, University of Gothenburg, autor correspondente), Jesse Peterson (0000-0002-0634-8839, University College Cork), Niclas Hagen (0000-0003-2390-9500, University of Gothenburg)
Ano2024
Volume50
Fascículo6
Páginas1334-1366
Data de publicação2024-08-08
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/01622439241265521
OpenAlexW4401472391
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas70

There is an increasing international trend in environmental activism to use legal institutions and infrastructures for citizen science (CS) to affect policy and regulation. However, knowledge about observations produced in activist CS and their functions at courts is scarce. To address this, we analyze how citizen observations (COs) reported to an established infrastructure for CS assist in producing legal obligations. Sweden provides an exemplary case due to the integration between CS biodiversity infrastructures, environmental regulation, and the increasing number of legal environmental conflicts. Data was gathered from documentation of legal cases argued in front of the Land and Environment Court of Appeal (LECA) from 2012 to 2020, and interviews with civil servants at Swedish environmental public authorities. Through a qualitative analysis, we find several ways that COs get associated to legal obligations, including through civil servants' decisions, species spatial-temporality, comparisons between different CS reporting systems, the negotiation of species status on red lists, and interpretations of species behavior. We relate our findings to a broader discussion on what forms of representation matter in environmental regulation and who and what can speak for species and entities making up the world

Appeal · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Environmental law and policy · European and International Law Studies · Law