Celebrating three years of CoAct: Ending Cycles

Celebrating three years of CoAct: Ending Cycles

By Ricardo Ruiz Comment Closed
During the last 36 months, the Global Innovation Gathering helped CoAct project deliver Citizen Social Science concepts and practices to more than 1,6 million people, using a wide range of communication strategies and tools, combined with intense resilience and creativity during the COVID-19 pandemic.  CoAct (Co-designing Citizen Social Science for Collective Action) proposes a radically new approach to facing global social issues by engaging vulnerable citizens as co-researchers. The strategy represents a new account of Citizen Social Science, understood here as participatory research co-designed and directly driven by citizen groups sharing a social concern. CoAct's research approach, where citizen groups and their problems are at the core of the research questions, requires translating those attributes for its communicative and dissemination activities. Furthermore, CoAct's shared values - Inclusiveness, Horizontality, Equity, Trust and Respect, Open Science, Co-ownership, Empowerment, and Reflexivity - underlined the direction and structure of CoAct's communication, dissemination and exploitation Work Package, led by the Global Innovation Gathering inside a consortium partnership. The first year...
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Gig @ re:publica’22 is here!

Gig @ re:publica’22 is here!

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
GIG @ re:publica ‘22 is finally happening in-person (after 2 years of not being able to) and we couldn't be more excited! This year’s festival with the “Any way the wind blows” happens on 8-10 June, at Arena Berlin & Festsaal Kreuzberg Yay for the Makerspace! The Makerspace is happening at re:publica 2022 and as usual is bringing together some of the most brilliant makers and innovators from around the world. Curated by the GIG and with support from our membership in the Distributed Design Platform, we host full-on three days of Workshops, Meetups and Exhibitions, all happening in the Makerspace at the heart of re:publica. Whether developing robots, learning how to replace plastic bags with biodegradable materials, making your own eco-prints on DIY bio leather, or recording crawling insects by adapting programming code, our workshops program will ensure you leave with some real Hands-on knowledge. Learn more about the Workshops program here.At the comfort of the HomeBase, our Meetups will bring speakers...
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ECSA 2022 Conference: Citizen Science for Planetary Health

ECSA 2022 Conference: Citizen Science for Planetary Health

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
We got some great updates about the 4th international ECSA Conference 2022! When: From the 5th-8th October 2022Where: In Berlin Why “Citizen Science for Planetary Health”? Because the health of our planet is at risk. To preserve and support the well-being of all life on Earth, we need the commitment and efforts of everyone – policy makers, the public, business, science and research. Citizen science offers effective and innovative ways to do transdisciplinary research and influence decision-making in multiple areas and ways. Citizen science is particularly suited to connect diverse fields and diverse actors in the common endeavour of collaborating in research.The concept of planetary health is based on the understanding that human health and human civilization depend on thriving natural systems and the sustainable stewardship of those natural systems. This demands not only knowledge, commitment and engagement of health and environmental sciences, but inter- and transdisciplinary efforts from all research fields and societal and political actors. The ECSA 2022 Conference invites...
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Join our monthly hangouts shaping a gloCal Citizen Social Science Approach

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
GIG, in its role as CoAct consortium member, strives to contribute to the shaping of this approach with a global bottom-up perspective on how Science should/is be thought of and addressed, and how inclusive bottom-up practices are enabled, in most diverse contexts around the world. Building on a series of hangouts, webinars, and other conversations we hosted over the last two years, we concluded in 5 key leading topics. In 2022 we will Host one hangout per topic and invite you to join the conversationCo-write an open publication and invite you to co-author [more info here] as our contribution to the shaping of an inclusive Citizen Social Science approach! Join our Hangouts! During the hangouts we will have a vibrant conversation around one topic at a time. We will also provide information regarding the co-writing and answer questions to everyone who is interested to co-author with us! April 21: Locally driven protocols and local traditions in ScienceMay 19: The ownership of ScienceJune 23: Decolonizing our educational/institutional...
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Our first CoAct 2022 hangout is around the corner!

Our first CoAct 2022 hangout is around the corner!

By Mugethi Gitau Comment Closed
Join us on Thursday, April 21st, 2PM CEST We will meet for the first of a series of five hangouts providing a space for conversation and co-shaping an inclusive *Open *Citizen *Social Science landscape - Voices and methods from around the world.The Global Innovation Gathering is a consortium member of the Horizon 2020 project ‘CoAct – Co-Creating a Citizen Social Science Approach’. Within CoAct, one of our goals is to foster a critical debate, addressing what Co-Creation, what inclusive approaches, and what science should look like when accounting for multiple voices, needs, and traditions from all around the world. Throughout the year we are going to host five hangouts discussing central topics the community identified. These hangouts accompany a process of co-writing an open publication that brings together your critical understandings to inclusive Citizen Social Science from a gloCal perspective. You can become a co-author, read more here. Register here for the hangout Topic: Locally driven protocols and local traditions in OCSS What is required...
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Announcing DOTS 2021!

Announcing DOTS 2021!

By Mugethi GitauNo Comments
It is finally that time of the year! Although we could not physically gather anywhere after 2019, we did gather virtually in many events, and also during the weekly GIG team calls. We know the reality of meeting online is not exactly what we want – but we’re also preparing to meet again physically in 2022 ! Still, this year’s DOTS – our annual gathering – will need to take place virtually .  DOTS will be more focused this year on our network and organisation. With this, we invite you to save the date for the DOTS week (November 26-30) and to participate and arrange sessions. Leading up to this, we shall offer several info sessions about board members roles, GIG governance and the general assembly.   The agenda for DOTS: 26th | 13.00 - 15.30 CET: General Assembly Meeting The  General Assembly is the central decision-making organ of GIG e.V. the NGO which forms the legal body of the GIG Network....
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Re:publica ’21 Sessions GIG – DDMP

Re:publica ’21 Sessions GIG – DDMP

By Mugethi GitauNo Comments
Re:publica Sessions GIG - DDMP We are excited to announce that this year the Global Innovation Gathering will be hosting a pre-publica programme on May 20th together with the Distributed Design Europe Network. The programme is going to feature makers and innovators from around the world showcasing their work and discussion current topics  Whether virtual or in person - re:publica is the space where different communities convene and exchange including the international network of innovators that is the Global Innovation Gathering and the the Distributed Design network that brings together makers across Europe. This year we can’t welcome you at our pop-up Makerspace but we can invite you to join the sessions on May 20th as well as the other re:publica days to meet the GIG and DDMP communities and learn how the maker movement is working in times of the pandemic to support local communities with PPE, fight climate change and design a fair and equitable future!  Speakers will include Reem Talhouk...
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What is CoAct?

What is CoAct?

By Mugethi GitauNo Comments
https://youtu.be/kPuSDkEjEo8 Co-designing Citizen Social Science for Collective ActionCoAct is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. CoAct is proposing a new understanding of Citizen Social Science as participatory research co-designed and directly driven by citizen groups sharing a social concern, in which they become co-researchers in processes commonly dominated by academic researchers. CoAct aims to bring together and further develop methods to give citizen groups an equal ‘seat at the table’ through active participation in research, from the design to the interpretation of the results and their transformation into concrete actions. We call this Citizen Social Science!Citizen Social Science combines equal collaboration between citizen groups (co-researchers) that are sharing a social concern and academic researchers. Such an approach enables to address pressing social issues from the bottom up, embedded in their social contexts, with robust research methods. We aim to co-create socially robust knowledge. How will we do Citizen Social Science?The research groups will develop locally embedded...
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