Expanding and Democratizing Knowledge: Participatory Citizen Science as a Research Strategy for Empirical Theology

Abstract (Participatory) citizen science is a research strategy that is strongly promoted by various research institutes throughout continental Europe. The basic idea behind this approach is to include citizens in the research process with the aim of more closely interrelating science and daily life, while increasing the impact of scientific findings on individuals and communities. With that said, participatory citizen science has rarely been used in the field of empirical theology. To demonstrate the potential of its use in this field, this article provides a critical introduction to participatory citizen science as a research strategy and offers insights from a research project in which a religious app was analyzed in collaboration with citizens using a qualitative paradigm.