We are all concerned by the environmental threats facing us today. Environmental issues are a major area of concern for policy makers, industrialists and public groups of many different kinds. While science seems central to our understanding of such threats, the statements of scientists are increasingly open to challenge in this area. Meanwhile, citizens may find themselves labelled as ignorant' in environmental matters. In Citizen Science Alan Irwin provides a much needed route through the fraught relationship between science, the public and the environmental threat.

In this text, the difficult relationship between science, society and the environment is explored. Drawing upon sociological studies of scientific knowledge and of the risk society, the author argues that sustainable development will not be possible without attention to questions of citizenship and citizen knowledge. Building upon a critical discussion of the relationship between science and environmental policy-making, he considers the existence of more contextual forms of knowledge and understanding. Irwin suggests that both environmental policy and environmental understanding need to be...