Modes of lay environmental monitoring : towards a sociology of environmental monitoring

Through the analysis of three cases in the field of environmental monitoring which come from different countries and organisational contexts, this thesis considers the chief theoretical, conceptual and methodological lines that lead towards a general framework for the sociology of environmental monitoring and, to a certain extent, the sociology of monitoring more broadly. More precisely, the thesis explores the processes through which lay environmental monitoring occurs. In this sense, the study documents the ways that citizen groups or individuals can engage with environmental monitoring. It explores potential clashes between citizens’ own understanding of the purposes of monitoring and the objectives endorsed by official agencies. It also shows how new technologies have been introduced into citizens’ monitoring activities and reveals some of the unintended consequences of public engagement with such novel techniques. Drawing on theoretical work pertaining to the sociology of the environment, social studies of science and general social theory, the thesis argues that monitoring has been overlooked by sociological thought and empirical research and attempts to place the topic of monitoring in the sociological debate with two main aims in mind: a) to show that environmental monitoring is in fact central to many forms of environmental activity and intervention which are routinely discussed by sociological (and related) authors, even though they do not really attend to the topic of monitoring; b) to indicate how the broader sociological literature (including studies in the sociology of science and in the sociology of surveillance) can aid an understanding and appreciation of the practice and role of monitoring. The thesis proposes the notion of modes of lay environmental monitoring, using each of the three case studies as the grounds for the three modes considered. It concludes that environmental monitoring is a field opened up for lay participation and involvement through multiple processes giving shape to distinct modes of lay monitoring which, in turn, have implications for the understanding of monitoring itself.