Acknowledging Mistakes

As trivial as it may seem, one of the biggest and most important skills for someone engaged in collective action to have is the ability to admit to and acknowledge when they have done something wrong. For instance, at the very start of the interviewing process for the current webcase, my father had used the term “citizen science” to discuss his work. However, a moment or two after he spoke, he later went on to correct his wording to “community science.” While the difference in terminology made no difference to me, as I had heard both used seemingly interchangeably in a number of circles, he would later go on to explain that the former term had somewhat lost favor within the scientific community. More specifically, concerns had been leveled at the term for being non-inclusive to those lacking citizen status within their country or location of residence1. Though a small action to me, having lacked the knowledge of this shift of terminology, my father’s correction could carry a large amount of significance for someone else. As such, even things as seemingly small as corrections to misspeaking can make a world of difference in successfully facilitating collective action.


Sources

  1. The controversy over the term ‘citizen science’