Sensing for Justice - SensJus
Description
The Sensing for Justice - SensJus project researches how people (‘civic sentinels’) use monitoring technologies or their senses to gather evidence of environmental issues (‘civic environmental monitoring’).
We explore whether and how civic environmental monitoring can be an effective new way to find evidence about environmental wrong-doings and to leverage this evidence in different institutional fora, such as in courts and for conflict mediation.
The project SensJus received the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship n. 891513, awarded to Anna Berti Suman under H2020-EU. The project was hosted at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Digital Economy Unit, Ispra, Italy, with the supervision of Project Leader, Sven Schade. The project funding is currently over, but scientific and civic engagement activities continue.
When and Where
Policy Context
Participants
Communities affected by an environmental harms
Civic monitoring communities
Scientists and legal experts supporting such communities
Methodologies
The work engages with a multitude of relevant actors, from the civic sentinels to legal practitioners to enforcement agencies, using experimental dissemination methods such as graphic novels and story-telling.
Impact
Assessment
→ Action in court through evidence gathered by ordinary people can signal unaddressed demands and distrust towards institutions and companies, and these feelings should be channeled and gathered through appropriate engagement strategies;
→ Civic monitoring is contributing to the provision of public services, and therefore recognition is key including in designing participatory processes.
→ Performing civic environmental monitoring should be recognised as a rightful contribution to environmental law enforcement and to the gathering and provision of environmental information; this recognition should motivate further engagement.
→ Engagement methods based on artistic practices ('research creation') can ensure a diversified and sustained participation to the process from multiple stakeholders.