In the Minor Key - The Minuscular Mycelium and its Implications for Citizen Science
At a Glance
Section titled âAt a Glanceâ| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2025-09-01 |
| Journal | Community Science |
| Authors | Jacqueline Goldin, Caroline Suransky |
| Institutions | Utrecht University, University of the Western Cape |
Abstract
Section titled âAbstractâAbstract In an era marked by ecological precarity and growing demands for knowledge systems that are more inclusive, situated, and responsive, grassroots initiatives have begun to challenge dominant models of science and expertise. Among these, citizen science has emerged as a powerful mode of inquiry that brings together universityâbased scientists with communities to highlight lived experience, local knowledge, and collective senseâmaking. One such initiative, which is grounded in a commitment to care, justice, and coâcreation is the project Diamonds on the Soles of our Feet (DSF) which originated as a locally rooted water literacy project in the province of Limpopo in South Africa. Since its inception in 2019, the project has evolved in unexpected, generative and at times even unfathomable ways. From its start in one rural village, it grew into a multiâsited, transnational, and increasingly entangled exploration of environmental justice and relational care. This paper seeks to make sense of these developments through the conceptual lens of a âfungal turnâ and the aesthetics of care. Engaging with the entanglements of citizen science, we found, can open up forms of learning that stretch beyond conventional scientific frameworks. Here the image of the fungal as a (dis)organizing principle allows us to contrast it with the more rigid image of science as a container. As DSF networ(ld)s extend into uncharted geographical terrains, the application of an ethics of care, coupled with fungal imagery, offers a valuable lens to interpret the unexpected and indeterminate textures that characterize our unfolding DSF journey. By equipping both learners and educators, DSF aims to create a collaborative model that supports longâterm behavioral change and where authentic, valueâtransparent conversations become the fertile ground for meaningful engagement. We thus aim to create a pedagogy of connection, one that links ecology, identity, and imagination, resisting the impulse to fix, explain away or simplify, but instead to cultivate the capacity to remain present with the troubling complexity of it all. Once we took citizen science out of the container, we began to inhabit a space where encounters became unpredictable, often uncomfortable and occasionally deeply troubling. By resisting the impulse to command, to classify and to control and by resting instead in the minor key , meaning in the unfolding process rather than the singular event, we allowed ourselves to become entangled. Mushrooms offer more than a biological metaphor; they become a lens to reimagine ecological entanglement and the oftenâinvisible networks that shape our understanding of science, learning, and care.