Wanted - Garden dormouse in Vorarlberg

The garden dormouse, which is active at dusk and at night, has probably the most contrasting coat colouration among the small mammals in our latitudes. It prefers coniferous and mixed forests with rocky ground as its habitat. Little is known about its occurrence in Vorarlberg.

In a citizen science research project, the inatura - Erlebnis Naturschau Dornbirn was therefore searching for the garden dormouse in Vorarlberg in cooperation with the apodemus institute.

The "Garden dormouse" project has been completed. If you have spotted a garden dormouse, your observations are still welcome and you can report them on the laendlemaus.at platform.

Music therapy from our perspectives

“My Tune“ was a participatory research project in the field of music therapy (MT), which was carried out at the WZMF* and funded by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft GmbH in the frame of the “Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in Research 2021” call.

From March 2022 to April 2023, the “My Tune” research team developed a MT assistive reflection tool for young adult service users, namely the “My Tune” tool. The team consisted of:

• WZMF researchers Julia Fent & Irene Stepniczka,
• the co-lead team (steering committee: two young adult service users, one caregiver, two music therapists), and
• the co-creation team (three young adult service users, four music therapists).

The “My Tune” tool set comprises a short information for service users, a handbook for music therapists, and two parts of structured action:

• Part 1 is an interactive module for service users and music therapists that stimulates the service users‘ reflections on their MT processes in a creative as well as structured manner: Starting off from a memorable situation in their MT, service users are invited to make this memory more present by musically improvising, drawing, or bodily performing on the situation. The service users can then work on the situation of choice along pre-formulated question and answer cards together with the therapist. The answer cards also include an option for a free formulated reply. As such, Part 1 of the tool not only provokes personal reflection about topics that might not have been in focus before but also encourages the interaction between the service users and their music therapist.
• Part 2 of the tool consists of a set of cards posing questions for reflection for the service users that is processed on their own and addresses the role of music in the service users’ lives, their experiences in their music therapy, and the impact of their music therapy on their everyday lives.

Additionally, if wanted, the service users may e.g., take notes in a diary, make drawings, etc. to preserve their thoughts and feelings and share them with their therapist. This way, the “My Tune” tool empowers the service users by letting them decide if, when, where, what, how, and to what extent the tool is being used.

Besides the developed and tested “My Tune” tool the project also brought diverse and valuable insights into participatory research practice in the field of music therapy that will feed into future projects and research as well.

Podcast episode

If you would like to learn more, you can listen to the Wissen macht Leute podcast episode about the project (in German).

*WZMF – Music Therapy Research Centre Vienna, Department of Music Therapy, mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Related publications:

Fent, J. & Stepniczka, I. (2022). My Tune – „Musiktherapie aus unseren Perspektiven“. Musiktherapeutische Umschau, 43(3), 258–260. 

Fent, J. & Stepniczka, I. (2023). Participatory research in music therapy: Potentials and challenges in “My Tune”. Music Therapy Today, Special Issue: Proceedings of the 17th World Congress of Music Therapy, 18(1), 317–318.

Stepniczka, I. & Fent, J. (2023). “My Tune” – music therapy evaluation from a novel perspective. Music Therapy Today, Special Issue: Proceedings of the 17th World Congress of Music Therapy, 18(1), 325–326.

Stepniczka, I. & Fent, J. (2023). “My Tune: Music Therapy from OUR Perspectives”. PoS ACSC2023, 005. doi: 10.22323/1.442.0005.

The shrinking town of Eisenerz lies at the foot of the Erzberg mountain, Austria’s largest and best-known site of extraction of iron ore. The post-industrial town is experiencing a rural exodus, which concerns women in particular. The spatial practices of mining areas have been under-researched using inclusive methods. Mining is predominantly narrated in male, heroic narratives, while counter-narratives of repair, care, reproduction and maintenance are mostly overlooked. 

Within this complex field, the project focuses on intersectional feminist perspectives on an area of exhaustion; it will collect feminist post-extractive stories to broaden the perception of mining areas and strengthen the focus on feminist narrations for future perspectives. We ask: Which practices contribute to the continuance of the community? The project shows and discusses the spatial practices of repair amid extraction with multiple actors. We work with local associations to reach diverse groups. 

Thinking and knowing with the diverse, often surprising, actors and their practices, the citizen scientists shape the project on several levels: they collect and locate stories of practices, they research private archives, and they report and sometimes even organize. Processes of mutual learning take place in meetings and shared activities, and through the process of transformation into drawings by the East Styrian artist Roswitha Weingrill. Based on collaborative science and an affirmative and inclusive approach, citizens are involved in decisions on many levels, especially concerning their contributions and their representation. The collected knowledge will contribute to creating imaginations of future stories of a liveable community. With the help of artistic methods, these will be illustrated and made accessible in public discussions. 

Via strategies of making visible, bringing together, and anticipating and activating futures, and also with the help of artistic tools of knowledge production, this project will show practices as constant reparative counter-practices amid extraction. An ethical, intersectional framework of feminist citizen science will revive the margins of how we know about environmental exploitation to deliver a complex, yet profound, image of a polyphonic Anthropocene that allows for imagining dynamic assemblages after exploitation. 

Photo gallery

• © Roswitha Weingrill © Roswitha Weingrill
• © Roswitha Weingrill © Roswitha Weingrill
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Citizen science-based bumblebee monitoring is a pillar of the Austrian wild bee survey. Most wild bee species can only be distinguished under a microscope. The genus of bumblebees (Bombus) is an exception and can usually be distinguished at species level after a training phase in the field (see Gokcezade et al., 2010), so that not only professionals can help with the observation and recording of bumblebees. Bumblebee monitoring ties in with the already existing reporting platform "naturbeobachtung.at" of the Austrian Society for Nature Conservation.

Through numerous initiatives such as bumblebee identification courses and excursion offers, a citizen science community with very good expertise has been formed in recent years. Since 2014, more than 61,000 observations of all bumblebee species currently occurring in Austria have been reported by over 700 reporters via web and app. In 2021 alone, 12,600 bumblebee observations were received. More than 51,000 reports could be checked, corrected if necessary and confirmed by professionals. Within the framework of the project, the reporting platform is to be expanded to include the option of transect counting (previously non-standardised individual observations) and interested participants are to be motivated, trained and supported.

The aim is to develop a functioning citizen science network in the next two years, which will be used in the long term. We aim to cooperate with other European countries that have established similar projects in order to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis on an international level. In the future, trends for individual populations are to be derived from the data and conservation measures improved.

What is the project about?

The crowdsourcing project "Viennese playbills 1930-1939" is about the metadata capture of the playbills from the holdings of the Vienna City Library from this period. Previously only organized by theater and not indexed individually, during the project these valuable historical sources will become recorded individually and thus discoverable for all. The playbills provide insights into an initially internationally acclaimed and lively Viennese theater world, which was confronted with an increasing restriction of creative scope due to anti-liberal and anti-democratic tendencies.

Since the democratization of knowledge plays a central role in the range of tasks of the Vienna City Library and the previous crowdsourcing projects "Letters 1914-1919" as well as "Letters 1920-1934" have been a great success, we are now again asking the crowd for help in recording our playbills.

The Vienna City Library preserves around 250,000 playbills and program booklets from over 300 Viennese venues, ranging from 1720 to the present. Some of these have been digitized and are freely available in the Digital Library.

How can one contribute?

Participation is open to all interested persons. After registering, you can choose between two tasks: Capture metadata or review information already captured by others. If errors are discovered, they can be changed and a new version created. Two independent confirmations are necessary for a playbill to be classified as correct.

What happens to the results?

The metadata collected is integrated at regular intervals into the Digital Library of the Vienna City Library and will then be individually retrievable and searchable. This means that the playbills can be found by anyone interested and can be filtered by means of various search queries, e.g. by plays that were performed or by individual actors. This is not yet possible.

Crowdsourcing platform crowdsourcing.wien

The project "Viennese playbills 1930-1939" is part of the crowdsourcing platform crowdsourcing.wien – a cooperation of Wien Museum and Vienna City Library. The aim of this joint platform is to make original sources on the history of Vienna from various institutions accessible to all interested persons with the help of the crowd. Because only knowledge that can be read and comprehended can be brought to life and made available for inclusive debate.

More information: crowdsourcing.wien

Gallery

• Madonna im Schlafcoupé at the Renaissance-Theater, 1930, Vienna City Library Madonna im Schlafcoupé at the Renaissance-Theater, 1930, Vienna City Library
• Nur nit heiraten at the Raimund-Theater, 1931, Vienna City Library Nur nit heiraten at the Raimund-Theater, 1931, Vienna City Library
• Sissy at the Theater an der Wien, 1932, Vienna City Library Sissy at the Theater an der Wien, 1932, Vienna City Library
• Tosca at the Volksoper Wien, 1933, Vienna City Library Tosca at the Volksoper Wien, 1933, Vienna City Library
• Schule für Steuerzahler at the Volkstheater Wien, 1935, Vienna City Library Schule für Steuerzahler at the Volkstheater Wien, 1935, Vienna City Library
• Gespenster at the Schönbrunner Schlosstheater, 1936, Vienna City Library Gespenster at the Schönbrunner Schlosstheater, 1936, Vienna City Library
• Der Meineidbauer at the Theater der Jugend, 1938, Vienna City Library Der Meineidbauer at the Theater der Jugend, 1938, Vienna City Library
• Der Schrecken der Saison at the Neuen Wiener Operettentheater, 1939, Vienna City Library Der Schrecken der Saison at the Neuen Wiener Operettentheater, 1939, Vienna City Library
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Better governance of ecosystem services at local scales in the Wienerwald region 

A joint research project of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) and the University of Vienna.

What is ServeToPe studying and what are its goals?

Society uses a variety of services that natural ecosystems provide, such as clean water, an attractive landscape for recreational purposes, food, or renewable energy sources. Many of these so-called ecosystem services (ESS) are influenced by humans. These include, for example, agricultural activities or the construction of roads. As a consequence, society regulates human actions and thus indirectly the availability of ESS. Examples of such policies are agri-environmental programs or local land use planning.

The Citizen Science project ServeToPe develops methods to better quantify the demand for ESS and their availability in a landscape. ServeToPe thus aims to contribute to more sustainable management of ESS and more targeted policies that focus on people's needs. ServeToPe is thereby based in the biosphere reserve Wienerwald as a case study region. 

ServeToPe mainly aims to answer the following research questions.

1. What is the current demand for ESS and to what extent can the Wienerwald region satisfy this demand with the offered ESS?
2. What does "good management" mean from the citizens' point of view? How can policies contribute to a convergence of demand for ESS and their supply?

ServeToPe will reveal mismatches between the demand for ESS and their supply and will propose countermeasures. An example of this could be regional conservation efforts specifically planned for the landscape.

What methods are used?

ServeToPe uses a variety of methods to answer the research questions and to involve as many and as diverse citizens as possible. For example, workshops were held in schools or with citizens from the region. All citizens can participate online via a survey (see below). On the project website you can find more information about the methods and the roles of citizens (in German). 

How can I participate?

Citizens are important research partners in ServeToPe. In particular, they support the visualization and quantification of the demand for ESS and of conflicting goals and trade-offs of between different ESS. A trade-off exists, for example, when several citizens want to use the same area for different purposes resulting in conflicts (e.g. recreational use and food production). You as citizen can therefore make an important contribution to the research project by participating in the following anonymous surveys. 

In the main survey you can (1) enter your own activities and uses of ESS in the Wienerwald, (2) enter and locate frequently observed activities and ESS uses, and (3) identify trade-offs and opportunities for improvement. You can also upload pictures for this purpose. The main survey can be filled in only once.

However, you can also participate more regularly and thereby support ServeToPe even more intensively. This is possible via a second short survey, where you can enter and locate observed activities and ESS uses, as well as trade-offs. A picture upload is also possible here. In this short second survey, you can participate repeatedly over the entire duration of the project - i.e. continuously enter your observations. This gives us an even more accurate representation of uses and activities. You as a citizen scientist gain the opportunity to locate multiple uses and activities in areas and therefore identify multiple and more accurate trade-offs and improvements.

What happens to these results?

The results from the surveys of activities, uses, and trade-offs in the Wienerwald are compiled by the BOKU Vienna and University of Vienna research team and compared with other data on the supply of ESS (see methodology). These results are then published on the ServeToPe website. You can also sign up in our contact form to receive the results via email. 

Afterwards, the results are presented to stakeholders from the region (e.g.: Employees of the administration, representatives from agriculture, nature conservation, recreational use, education and regional management) in a workshop. In this workshop, solutions and countermeasures will be developed based on the identified trade-offs and conflicts due to differences in ESS supply and demand. 

If you have any questions, please contact Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) without hesitation.

The project team

ServeToPe is led by Martin Schönhart (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), from the Institute for Sustainable Economic Development at BOKU University. Furthermore, the project team includes Thomas Wrbka (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Florian Danzinger (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) from the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research at the University of Vienna. In addition, the students of the course " Conservation Related Methodologies of Social, Cultural and Economic Sciences" of the University of Vienna are involved in the project. If you have any questions, please contact Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) without hesitation.

Youth and single parents doing urban research

 About the project

The climate crisis repeatedly exposes existing weaknesses in democratic practice. On the one hand, groups that are most affected by the consequences of climate change are often underrepresented in the prevailing political and planning practice (participation crisis). On the other hand, social inequality and the exclusion of people from political decision-making processes increases the loss of trust in political decision-makers and institutions (democracy crisis). Therefore, dealing with the consequences of the climate crisis in research and planning cannot be done without looking at ecological and social justice. Who can have a say in crises and help develop solutions? Who suffers most from the consequences of the crises and who does urban development reach?

What is the aim of the project?

The project aims to explore possible applications of Citizen Social Science (CSS) in urban development, especially regarding the potential of involving usually underrepresented groups. The central research interest is to identify to what extent CSS can complement transformation processes, such as the redesign of a street space in an urban context, with the perspectives of marginalized groups. For this purpose, two Citizen Science experiments will be conducted with two selected groups using the participation process "zukunftsfitte Gumpendorfer Straße" in Vienna's 6th district: Single parents and students. The results of these CSS Experiments will help to understand how vulnerable groups can be better represented in transformation processes of urban development leading to environmental and social justice.

What happens with the results?

The project is gathering experience on how to involve marginalized groups in urban development transformation processes through CSS activities. Based on this experience, recommendations for the implementation of CSS in urban development will be developed regarding process design and application of methods.

Based on the perspectives of two marginalized groups, complementary knowledge bases are generated for the transformation of the Gumpendorfer Straße. This knowledge will be handed over to the planning office PlanSinn, which is implementing the participation process for the redesign of Gumpendorfer Straße in a bidding consortium with CarlaLo on behalf of the district.

How can I participate?

The project structure is divided into two dialog groups: single parents and students. The participation for the group of single parents is open to single parents in Vienna who regularly visit the area of Gumpendorfer Straße. Participation is possible at our website.

The group of students will be approached directly by the project team through interested teachers at different schools in Mariahilf. Information on the progress of the project will be published on the website of the TU Wien Library.

Who is behind the project?

The project part on the group of single parents is led by Tamara Bauer, who is currently writing her diploma thesis at the future.lab Research Center of the Vienna University of Technology. 

The project part on the group of students is led by Sebastian Harnacker, project staff member at the TU Wien Library. The project will be carried out in cooperation with partners from the participation and transformation process.

The project is part of the research project "OPUSH" at the TU Wien. The aim of the international research project "OPUSH" is to make knowledge about sustainable development visible and accessible to local communities. Project partners from the four European cities of Barcelona, Delft, Tallinn and Vienna are conducting research together with citizens; libraries and other local cultural institutions are playing a mediating role.

What are Urban Heat Stories?

It will get hotter and hotter in the city over the next few years. The impact of heat can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood. It depends not only on the building density or the degree of sealing in the city, but also on the age and state of health of the people and their immediate living environment.

The Urban Heat Stories research project therefore collects individual heat experiences of vulnerable groups in Vienna. The aim is to make the diverse concerns and demands of city dwellers visible. 

The aim is also to develop a chatbot pilot. It should provide insights into the social dimension of heat at city level. On this basis, recommendations for sustainable urban development in the face of rising temperatures can be expanded to include a social dimension, thus integrating the needs of vulnerable groups into planning in the long term

How does Urban Heat Stories work?

The main cooperation partners are the city's residents. In a two-part workshop, they first map their locations in the public space around their homes. The temperatures of the localized places are investigated using mobile sensors in a joint perceptual and exploratory walk. The measured temperatures are compared with the personal perception of heat. This provides a basis for discussion of the Urban Heat Stories. These stories are the foundation for the development of the new chatbot pilot on heat perception in the city. 

How can I participate in the research?

Starting in September 2023, four workshops with senior citizens as Citizen Scientists have taken place around Quellenplatz (10th district, Vienna). The format is to be continued in spring/summer 2024 in other districts with other target groups. A first chatbot pilot will additionally be launched in winter 2024. 

Upcoming events: 

• Urban Heat Stories at the Citizen Science Day at the Natural History Museum Vienna: As part of the Citizen Science Day (06.04.2024, NHM Vienna), interested citizens will have the opportunity to learn about the project, share their own stories and measure temperatures with us. We are looking forward to your visit!
• Citizen Science Award 2024: We are delighted to have been selected as one of eight projects for the Citizen Science Award 2024. Workshops with schools will take place between April and July 2024. Details on how to register at: www.youngscience.at/csa.

If you are interested in conducting a Citizen Science research on heat experiences (e.g. workshop participation, chatbot test) in your neighborhood, we would also be pleased to receive a short initiative mail.

Podcast episode

As part of the episode "The Citizen Science Award 2024 - behind the scenes", Sebastian Harnacker presented the project in the podcast Wissen macht Leute. You can listen to the episode on our blog or on the podcast app of your choice (the episode is in German). You can find all the details here.

What happens with the results?

The findings will provide the basis for recommendations in urban planning and will be incorporated into current Viennese planning projects (e.g. WienNeu+, 10th district). They will also be published on the website of the future.lab Research Center of TU Wien. For participants - as co-researchers - the results will also be made available free of charge as a print edition.

Who is responsible for the project?

The project team consists of researchers from the future.lab Research Center and TU Wien Bibliothek as well as residents as citizen scientists. Urban research does not take place in a laboratory, but together on site. Residents contribute their experiences and interests.

The project is being implemented - as part of the European research project "OPUSH" - in close cooperation with the partner project Heat Chronicles (Cròniques de la Calor) of Open Systems at the Universidad de Barcelona. There is cooperation at local level with the City of Vienna (MA 22, MA 25, GB*), the Vienna Chamber of Labor and the Natural History Museum.

What roles are there in the project?

• The transdisciplinary project team is made up of the research group of the future.lab Research Center and the TU Wien Bibliothek. The TU Wien Bibliothek can draw on experience in the fields of big data and urban heat, among others.
• The residents participate as citizen scientists in the development of content for the Chatbot and are central to the collection of data in the form of micro-stories.
• The Natural History Museum is involved as a local stakeholder with extensive experience with citizen science experiments. 
• Local project partners are also the municipal departments of the City of Vienna MA 21 and MA 22 (expertise and meteorological background data), the Vienna Chamber of Labour (e.g. social space monitor), OpenKnowledgeMaps (data visualization) and Wunderbyte (chatbot programming).

News from the projects, information on citizen science and the opportunity to join in the discussion - this and more awaits you on the Österreich forscht blog.

On our blog you will find a lot of information about project presentations, summaries of the latest project results or events in the context of citizen science in Austria. But there is also room for interviews, opinions and help on the blog. Some projects and research institutions have their own team blogs on Österreich forscht, where you can see all updates of these projects or research institutions at a glance.

We are pleased about the numerous contributions of different authors who deal with topics from the most diverse disciplines and thus also reflect the diversity of citizen science. So you will find a colourful mix of different contributions in the blog. 

As the blog is a central communication and information tool of the Austrian citizen science community, it is unfortunately only available in German. However, we cordially invite you to browse through the blog with a translation software of your choice.

What is the project about?

The crowdsourcing project "Letters 1920-1934" is about the transcription of the unique letter collection of the Vienna City Library from this period. In contrast to historical printed works, which are now subjected to automatic full-text recognition as standard, this is still not so easy to do for manuscripts - especially when the documents come from many different writers, as in this case. Since the democratization of knowledge plays a central role in the range of tasks of the Vienna City Library and the pilot project "Letters 1914-1919" has been a great success, we are again asking the crowd for help in indexing the content.

The Vienna City Library will digitize all correspondence - more than 200,000 items - by 2025 and make them freely available in the Digital Library in compliance with copyright law. Due to the alphabetical approach, the crowdsourcing project's holdings will successively expand up to the letter Z.

How can one contribute?

Participation is open to all interested persons. After registering, you can choose between two tasks: Transcribe letters or check letters already transcribed by others. If errors are discovered, they can be changed and a new version created. Three independent confirmations are necessary for a transcription to be classified as correct.

What happens to the results?

The finished transcriptions are integrated into the Digital Library of the Vienna City Library at regular intervals and can then be retrieved and searched at any time. This makes the contents of the letters accessible to all interested persons - something that was previously reserved for a limited circle of experts.

Crowdsourcing platform crowdsourcing.wien

The project "Letters 1920-1934" is part of the crowdsourcing platform crowdsourcing.wien – a cooperation of Wien Museum and Vienna City Library. The aim of this joint platform is to make original sources on the history of Vienna from various institutions accessible to all interested persons with the help of the crowd. Because only knowledge that can be read and comprehended can be brought to life and made available for inclusive debate.

More information: crowdsourcing.wien

Podcast episode

In July 2023, project coordinator Alexandra Egger was guest on the Österreich forscht podcast Wissen macht Leute - you can listen to the episode here (in German).

Picture gallery:

• Letter from Maria Herz to Elise Richter, 21.6.1921, HIN-108648, Vienna City Library Letter from Maria Herz to Elise Richter, 21.6.1921, HIN-108648, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rudolf Beer for the Austrian Mother's Day Committee, May 1932, HIN-116120, Vienna City Library Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rudolf Beer for the Austrian Mother's Day Committee, May 1932, HIN-116120, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Josef Jarno to the management of the German Volkstheater [Rudolf Beer], 2.12.1927, HIN-116144, Vienna City Library Letter from Josef Jarno to the management of the German Volkstheater [Rudolf Beer], 2.12.1927, HIN-116144, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Marie Eugenie delle Grazie to Adele Strauß, 27.12.1920, HIN-120252, Vienna City Library Letter from Marie Eugenie delle Grazie to Adele Strauß, 27.12.1920, HIN-120252, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Rudolf Goldscheid to Rosa Mayreder, 29.7.1928, HIN-120387, Vienna City Library Letter from Rudolf Goldscheid to Rosa Mayreder, 29.7.1928, HIN-120387, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rosa Mayreder, 11.2.1933, HIN-121134, Vienna City Library Letter from Marianne Hainisch to Rosa Mayreder, 11.2.1933, HIN-121134, Vienna City Library
• Letter from August Heymann to Artaria and Compagnie, 5.6.1921, HIN-76007, Vienna City Library Letter from August Heymann to Artaria and Compagnie, 5.6.1921, HIN-76007, Vienna City Library
• Letter from Franz Eichert to Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, 31.10.1920, HIN-89136, Vienna City Library Letter from Franz Eichert to Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, 31.10.1920, HIN-89136, Vienna City Library
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