Open Science: For and With Communities

This is a presentation at the online conference Open Research: A Vision for the Future, hosted by the RIOT Science Club, King's College London.

http://riotscience.co.uk/open-research-a-vision-for-the-future/

Debates about the how and why of Open Science have tended to focus on the technicality, standards, and conditions about what is and what isn’t “open”. More importantly, the guidelines and principles on open science that have been proliferating are centered on largely Western and Global North perspectives. The more crucial questions of by whom and for whom should science be open, and who has the power to set the agenda of open science are often not addressed. In this talk, I like to highlight some of the values and benefits of openness to knowledges and ways of knowing from communities and knowledge makers who have been historically excluded from “main-stream science.” I like to share ideas on how a pluriversal open science commons based on epistemic justice principles and solidarity, drawn from Indigenous and other knowledge traditions, can be sustained and governed by communities and for communities in various contexts.