Ambitions and relevance of the citizen humanities

Abstract

The citizen humanities address human culture and critically analyse ideas, values and assumptions by involving members of the public in academic research. Challenging values and assumptions is crucial for solving global challenges that require paradigm shifts. Illustrated by different citizen humanities approaches, this article demonstrates how the relevance and the ambition of the citizen humanities manifest in different ways. The citizen humanities may crowdsource academic research or consider a plurality of perspectives and knowledge, find research gaps together with participants or put paradigms (also in research) under scrutiny.