Does eBird Contribute to Environmental Citizenship? A Discourse Analysis

This article explores to what extent existing environmental citizen science projects contribute to environmental citizenship. Specifically, we ask what kind of environmental citizenship does eBird—one of the world’s largest environmental citizen science platforms—co-create with its users. By applying a discourse analysis to eBird’s digital platform, we assess how it contributes to the formulation of specific social roles and environmental objects that shape an environmental citizenship unique to eBird. Using the analytical lens of collectiveness, situatedness, and connectedness, we show that eBird assumes responsibility for environmental citizenship over its users, that it promotes situated care for birds primarily through identification, and connects its users to some global environmental challenges. Through this analysis, we argue that environmental citizen science projects contribute to formulations of specific discursive environments (both material and social) where different forms of citizenship take form and take place.