‘Sensing for Justice’: promoting civic monitoring for EU environmental enforcement
The project ‘Sensing for Justice’ (in short, SensJus) explores how civic environmental monitoring can turn people into 'sentinels' for their environment. By performing civic monitoring, people re-gain a sense of responsibility and agency towards a nature, and can gather valuable evidence for environmental law enforcement. The project addresses an urgent need to understand emerging possibilities of the practice, starting from the demands and imaginaries of people affected by environmental issues.
Cross-border/international
Italy
Germany
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Belgium
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Netherlands
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Greece
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Denmark
A special focus was devoted to the poorest regions in the South of Italy, most affected by environmental issues and social inequalities, i.e., Sardinian Sulcis and the Agri and Basento Valleys of Basilicata (see the study published based on this case https://lead-journal.org/content/a1710.pdf). A case study focused on the municipality of Rome and civic water monitoring of the main city river (see the study published based on this case https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-risk-regulation/article/citizen-sensing-paradigm-to-foster-urban-transitions-lessons-from-civic-environmental-monitoring-in-rome/6969164B2780DD8814014C7E8EC37D1B).
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
Horizon2020 / Horizon Europe
The project was developed thanks to the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant n. 891513, under H2020-EU, running from 2021 to 2023 (see https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/891513). A pilot of the project was developed previously thanks to the concluded research grant (2020-2021) of the Dutch Research Council NWO, the Rubicon fellowship n. 66202117. The NWO-funded project is fully concluded, whereas the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant is almost concluded. However, all processes, tools, and methods envisaged for the project have been fully developed at the time of the application and we are focusing in these last months in the final dissemination and reporting phase.
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As an individual
First name: Anna Last name: Berti Suman Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Cacciatori delle Alpi 13 Town: Laveno Mombello Postal code: 21014 (VA) Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 329 871 3988 E-mail:anna.bertisuman@gmail.com Website:https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/
In 2019, a ground-breaking case was adjudicated in Texas, U.S., where fishers managed to prove corporate wrongdoings based on citizen-gathered evidence (CGE) of plastic contamination perpetrated over years by the petrochemical giant, Formosa Ltd, in violation of the U.S. Clean Water Act and in the absence of proper institutional recording of the damage. This successful case inspired us to search for similar cases also in the EU, where communities affected by corporate injustices can claim them in court based on CGE. The Sensing for Justice (SensJus) project was exactly launched to research the potential of grassroots-driven environmental monitoring as a source of evidence in environmental justice litigation, and as a tool for environmental mediation across the EU.
The three key aims of the projects are, first, to explore what is the potential of introducing citizen-gathered evidence (CGE) in environmental litigation across EU courts, based on successful world-wide experiences. We also aim to identify which barriers need to be removed for CGE to enter the court arena.
Second, we investigate whether CGE could also facilitate alternative dispute resolution, promoting environmental mediation and avoiding conflict escalation.
Third, we wish to assess how the use of CGE can be legitimized on the basis of existing and new rights, for example on the basis of the right of every human to contribute to the formation of environmental evidence. This recognition would foster a sense of civic responsibility towards nature.
Our research is addressing an urgent need for multi- and interdisciplinary research to understand emerging possibilities of the practice at a legal and judicial level. The research is performed together with the communities and practitioners that are directly involved in collecting CGE for litigation and mediation, allowing their questions, imaginaries and stakes to shape our approaches, for example through visual and story-telling approaches.
Civic environmental monitoring / citizen science
Participatory evidence
Environmental law
Human rights
Law enforcement
SensJus started from the following questions to set its objectives:
- What is the potential of introducing evidence gathered by ordinary people for environmental litigation in EU courts? Which barriers need to be removed?
- Could civic monitoring be conceived also as a form of environmental mediation and avoid issues escalating to court?
- How can the use of civic evidence be legitimised on the basis of existing and new rights? How would governance models have to adapt?
The key objectives of the project are 1) to explore the potential of civic environmental monitoring as evidence for law enforcement, focusing on environmental litigation (i.e., the court); 2) to inquire into the potential of the practice for mediating environmental conflicts (i.e. extra-judicial settings); 3) to offer an evidence base for the recognition of the right of every person to contribute environmental information. Further objectives of the project include attaining a closer connection of the affected people to environmental litigation and justice discourses, and ultimately to nature, to a wider, more diverse and inclusive availability of evidence on critical environmental issues for the ultimate benefit of nature protection and restoration, to the possibility of even mitigating environmental conflicts, with great benefits in terms of social, economic and environmental costs.
SensJus embraces 'research-creation', which is an emerging category within the social sciences and humanities that refers to research experiences and ways of knowing that include a creative process, an experimental aesthetic component or an artistic work as an integral part of a scientific study. We implement this practice through collaboration with artists and experts in the field. SensJus sees creativity and research-creation as modes of care for and empathy toward our research topic. As example of this in practice, we can mention 'Story of a civic sentinel', a graphic novel produced by SensJus and informed by fieldwork data, that tells the achievements but also challenges encountered by civic sentinels facing oil pollution in the Global South (including the multiple ‘Souths’ of the North). The novel serves both as a communication tool for reaching and engaging broader publics (for example, it can be useful in schools) and as a tool to elicit reactions from research participants that will relate to the story of the civic sentinels. We refined this method to reach also ‘sensitive’ publics such as (climate and environmental) migrants’ communities, that we regard them as promising sentinels. We made digital and hard copies of the novel available in various languages (so far, English, Italian, Spanish and French) and as a creative commons resource. This can be an appealing and enjoyable experience for various stakeholders from civil society (NGOs, activists, young students, citizen science communities) that can co-create with us making the novel evolve in multiple directions. We curated exhibitions of the process that lead to the graphic novel and disseminating it during festival and public events such as, the European Commission JRC Art&Science Week Resonances IV (Ispra, Italy).
More at: https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/l/fumetto/ and https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/l/a-june-full-of-science-art-for-sensjus/
In order to put into practice the theoretical values of including ordinary people in science, and because our research also targets participants with a low level of education, particularly rural and remote farmers, breeders, and fishers, we decided to create, together with an artist, fully visual informed consent forms or text-based but combining images and text. With the help of experts (including the Ethics Committee, the 'Clear Writing' team, and the Data Protection Officer of our institution, the JRC) and the participants themselves, we refined the text to make it more accessible. We decided to undertake this 'experiment' as we realized that standard consent forms were not effective in achieving participation and consent that were truly informed. We reject the 'proceduralism' of the researcher simply 'asking for a signature' on an often unintelligible form. In order to make this resource accessible to other researchers, we have made the forms and all images available as ‘creative commons’, editable, translatable into various languages, and reusable under a non-commercial license. We have knowledge that many individual researchers and research centres are using the resource. More at: https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/l/our-visual-consent-forms-now-out-as-creative-commons/
Furthermore, we aim to hear from our research participants how and what to improve of the project. We mostly ask for feedback in person, where possible, or through virtual interviews; for our audience, we ask for feedback in targeted email communications (for example, in response to our quarterly newsletter); we also use creative methods of evaluation, for example inviting different publics to collective drawings session on future ways to shape this research.
More at: https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/l/at-the-convergence-of-civic-monitoring-and-democracy/; https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/l/a-colourful-toolbox-health-citizen-science-under-the-gdpr/
Our activities and results benefit especially very local, small-scale and low-budget civic monitoring initiatives and the participating citizens that are neither supported by a public agency nor linked with an academic institution, often being deployed in contexts dominated by high distrust and conflict. These initiatives find usable tools, advice and guidance in our research, but also visibility when such initiatives are selected as case studies. Furthermore, people that are not yet engaged in an environmental monitoring initiatives find in our work a motivation to take responsibility for nature and 'become' sentinels. They also find relevant resources in the knowledge we offer on the potential (legal and health) risks that a person may face when performing civic environmental monitoring especially in conflictive scenarios. More at https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/l/sensjus-at-the-engaging-citizen-science-conference/.
We are also bringing our results where our target communities are, such as in oil-affected areas of Basilicata and in other environmentally disadvantaged areas. Furthermore, our presence in public spaces such as squares, schools and libraries made us invent creative ways to recount science, including ‘sensorial walks’ and jam sessions of drawing. Through these approaches, we could communicate our research results in ways that were more engaging for civil society and stimulate reactions, in an endless cycle of co-creation. Thanks to this approach, societal impact occurred along these lines:
- Communities and individuals from our case studies have increased interest in the legal implications of their civic monitoring activities, and are proactively asking for expanding the links between their work and environmental litigation and/or mediation;
- Youngsters and other people that were not engaged as civic sentinels are getting enthusiastic about civic monitoring for environmental justice and practice it.
SensJus combined solid action research (living and sharing the daily experiences of civic sentinels during our fieldwork on the researched case studies), with exchanges with leading experts and institutions in the field (for example the European Environmental Agency and the Aarhus Convention Meetings of the Parties). We are also strengthening our presence on the academic arena, with quality scientific publications, always combined with accessible blog posts to make our insights more usable for interested communities. We are integrating this approach with Science & Art methods. For example, we curated a theatre monologue, working with an actress. The monologue discusses in an engaging way the environmental and social consequences of oil extractions in Basilicata, an oil-rich region in the South of Italy. The work is in progress and, until now, it has been presented in the form of a theatrical reading in the Netherlands, in Italy, and at the European Commission Science Hub. An exhibition of the monologue can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjUt2qsswlA (minute 35:00). We often engage with journalists through different media channels, often accepting invitations to appear in video talks, podcasts and popular magazines. Practitioners are expressing attention to our project, and especially to our case studies that focus on spontaneous initiatives in conflictual scenarios. In addition, environmental non-governmental actors are engaging with our accessible studies where they can draw insights for building intervention strategies. Practitioners such as lawyers and judges find useful resources for understanding the landscape of civic monitoring and its judicial applications. Policy-makers engaged with our results the starting point for shaping policy and legislative interventions, to boost the potential of the practice. We believe that all this is very valuable as there is the need to upscale the actual contribution to nature protection of civic monitoring.
SensJus performs multi- and inter-disciplinary research focused on how people use monitoring technologies or their senses to gather evidence of
environmental issues. The inquiry explores whether and how civic environmental monitoring can be an effective new way to find evidence about environmental wrong-doing and to leverage this evidence in different institutional fora, such as courts. The research combines the legal discipline - in particular, environmental law and case-law review and the study of the applicable legal framework (e.g. the rights to civic participation in environmental matters, deriving from the Aarhus Convention as transposed into national legislation) - with a rigorous analysis of the scientific literature (in particular, socio-legal studies such as theories of diffuse governance and spontaneous or reactive civic participation), complementing all this with ethnography on 'situated' case studies and deploying field research, while also embracing art-based research methods. Key case studies include the ‘AnalyzeBasilicata’ case where people monitored environmental health issues associated with oil extraction (Italy), which became an alert for public prosecutors, and practitioners such as lawyers, doctors etc. The work engages with all actors, from the civic sentinels to legal practitioners to enforcement agencies, using experimental methods such as graphic novels and story-telling.
SensJus has embraced an approach in its journey that can be defined by the neologism 'polydisciplinamory'. This approach sees interdisciplinarity as an almost transgressive act that implies pushing beyond the limits of disciplinary boundaries, basing this on the contribution of 'queer' theory to challenge the 'mononormativity' that pervades many areas of knowledge. The term suggests that the researcher goes beyond interdisciplinarity, demonstrating an emotional willingness to engage with different disciplines as a caring practice, driven by curiosity.
The research and outreach activities deployed obtained results in different arenas. In particular here we will focus on those results that fostered a 're-connection' of people with nature as well as a change of perspective: no longer considering nature as a 'space to cross' but rather a living being that deserves all our attention and to which we can contributing even daily, by watching over its status and reporting any wrongdoing that we observe, by alerting authorities or - when needed - also in court. Our indirect beneficiary is thus nature as a whole, which benefits from the actions of the sentinels. Direct beneficiaries include:
- Scientists and policy-makers for our research outcomes: to them, we offered a wide array of scientific studies on the potential of civic environmental monitoring for law enforcement.
- The civic sentinels for our accessible resources on the factors that facilitate the acceptance of civic evidence in court, which we made available in usable formats; to them, we also provided resources and training on the potential of civic monitoring to generate evidence and mitigate conflicts, while examining its legal implications.
SensJus front page offers links to all these resources, see https://sensingforjustice.webnode.it/.
- To every person concerned for the environment: to them, we offered an understanding of environmental rights activated by civic monitoring; we could benefit diverse publics such as students, engaging them in sensorial and emotional experiences on the topic in public places.
Based on our assessments, we can say that more than 90% of our participants increased their understanding of the legal potential and implications of civic monitoring throughout their participation in the project, and made a considerable use of legal avenues in their practice. We can also say that more than 2/3 of our 'diffuse' audience increased their interest in the legal potential and implications of civic monitoring for environmental justice.
I was always driven by passion and enthusiasm in shaping SensJus and project reflects this. Legal research generally is boring, a bit paternalistic and often depicting a demotivating scenario. Rarely, legal scholars manage to engage and inspire ordinary people, breaking the barriers of accessing the legal domain. Furthermore, just a few European lawyers are dedicated to leverage the use of civic monitoring for environmental justice specifically in litigation and mediation, both at a scientific inquiry level and at the level of practice (indeed, I am also a barrister and I am more and more complementing my scientific inquiry with legal practice). The inclusion of art in our legal research is very unique in the field.
Due to the pandemic, some of planned physical fieldwork had to be performed virtually with the relevant communities, which made us innovate the way we could perform research online, using empathic and aesthetic modes of outreach. Also, the originally planned civic engagement in public spaces was in part moved to digital forums, which required some adjustments (for example, we made our events available also on YouTube as a live show and we presente in virtual festivals).
With the pandemic, however, we could benefit from the increased availability of digital opportunities of outreach, which enabled SensJus to reach communities in the Global South or in further areas of the Global North. With lockdowns, it was easier for polluters to commit wrongdoings without being so ‘controlled’ (as institutions were struggling with other priorities and the sentinels were in lock-down). This increased the challenges that the sentinels had to face but enabled us to have more occasions for our research, although fieldwork in person was not always possible. This was an innovative research angle that we could embrace.
For a video showcase on the project highlighting its innovative character, see: https://youtu.be/qjklf9ehc-g
The methodology developed during the course of the SensJus project started from the critique of an 'extractivist' approach to research. Moreover, SensJus believes that methods can rarely be predetermined and known in advance of the research event, otherwise they would be static and procedural. On the contrary, they should be dynamic and also stimulate confrontation through tensions. For instance, a 'sensorial walk' through the field cannot be seen as a data collection event followed by analysis and dissemination, whereas it becomes itself a research event in which the generation of research and its dissemination cannot be separated. Creative methods are thus embraced to carry out 'action-research' in which one inevitably influences the field with one's presence. We thus seeks to recognize our 'positionality' in relation to the topic studied, embracing a relational and responsible ethic of our involvement in the field.
Based on these theoretical foundations, the work carried out for SensJus fused together (I) the analysis of legal and scientific literature with (II) case studies, both through academic sources, grey literature and the media, and through (III) ethnography focused on selected case studies, while also embracing (IV) art-based and co-creative research methods. (V) The dissemination phase of the results involves multiple actors, from civic sentinels, students and legal practitioners to monitoring agencies and policy-makers, using experimental methods such as performance and story-telling. Especially for the more innovative and creative research methods, a series of targeted trainings took place during the course of the project in order to refine the methodological approach and techniques of research and data analysis, and also to learn how to work with professionals from different disciplines. For example, we recently engaged with the course 'Research-Creation: Merging the Critical and the Creative' offered by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
We refined an approach that can be replicated and scaled-up to different research contexts and practical applications. This approach is based on three stages. The first step is to conduct literature, legal and judicial research starting from alerts from communities and individuals affected by an environmental issue. Then, we deploy open-ended observations of potential case studies, shaping the research design together with the actors in the field, embracing co-creation methods. We move to the field physically or through virtual ethnography and art-based methods, deploying action-research techniques, taking an active part in the initiatives studied. Lastly, we share results with our participants and with broader publics in a participatory manner, through inclusive communications such as accessible blog posts, videos, podcast episodes and drawings. We also engage the participants in discussing findings, for example through theatrical performances and sensorial walks. Our resources can be used not only for our direct case studies but also in different contexts, for example in other countries with a similar legal and judicial system to the ones studied. Furthermore, our visual resources - like the illustrated consent forms - are very adaptable to different contexts with some cultural adjustments. Lastly, the approach to cases developed for SensJus can easily be replicated in other countries with comparable needs to those witnessed in our case studies. We have tangible evidence that this approach has been replicated and worked in other contexts both by researchers, and by civil society and practitioners. Civic, academic and institutional actors often praise our approach and reach us for advice. For example, the Falling Walls Foundation, an international no-profit science platform, judged SensJus as the best Science Engagement initiative among projects from around the world, for "Breaking the Wall to Civic Evidence of Environmental Harms".
Most of the evidence that we research through SensJus, namely those collected through civic monitoring, regards evidence of impacts of environmental contaminants on human health. By collecting such evidence, the civic sentinels strive for Planetary Health (a global challenge) as they draw links between human health and the environmental status (focusing on situated, local problems), asking for such interlinkages to be recognized in institutional decisions and interventions. SensJus also embraces the wide range of disciplines that are at stake within the notion of Planetary Health, such as eco-toxicology, public health and epidemiology. In the long-term horizon, we have two main goals as per our contribution to global challenges: (I) Accessible Legal Advice for All: ss often civil society actors struggle to obtain accessible legal advice, we would like to set up a tool that could pair legal experts working pro bono and interested individuals to provide accessible legal aid. To that end, we wish to co-create and implement an “Ask a legal question” tool where the sentinels can pose their legal questions to selected legal experts. Resulting questions and answers will be published on an open access platform, authored jointly by civic actors and legal experts. (II) Situated Climate Justice: from an ongoing pilot on researching climate change perception by climate migrants arriving in Italy, we realized that, often, migrants are regarded as vulnerable subjects deserving protection. However, they also hold a knowledge that could be potentially valuable in understanding the manifold causes underpinning migration, triggered or augmented by environmental and climate factors. In order to identify and valorise their knowledge, we aim to co-create trusted spaces and channels where this information can be shared, and then ensure that this knowledge can be valorised in practice, both in scientific and in judicial contexts.
