Citizen science is a social innovation that has recently been recognized by social initiatives as a possible tool to increase participation, build knowledge, and raise civic awareness. In order to work efficiently, citizen science requires the adoption of proper technological solutions by a critical mass of people. According to the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, people are more likely to adopt a technology that is compatible with their norms, values, and beliefs. In our research, we studied technological solutions that Polish environmental civic initiatives are using in order to diagnose their potential to implement citizen science projects and increase citizen participation. We interviewed 28 board representatives, managers, and initiators of social movements and conducted desk research of 65 social movements in Poland. Every technological solution was recorded and later categorized. The diagnostic analysis of the technological advancement of grassroots movements in Poland reveals that the full potential for launching citizen science projects has not yet been reached. First of all, the recognition of the citizen science approach is still low. Secondly, grassroots movements operate using standard and easily accessible technological solutions, rarely developing tailored and more advanced technologies that would enable people to be involved in citizen science projects.

Information and Communication Technology based tools for e-participation, which significantly lowered the entrance cost for citizens, augured widespread presence of citizens in the policy formulation process. However, even after years of practice, citizen engagement in e-participation remains low, especially in relatively new democracies, contributing to imbalance and misrepresentation of citizens' opinions. We present insights from the area of innovation adoption and propose an analytical framework for assessing e-participation initiatives' potential for eliciting wide citizen participation. In our study we examined participatory budgeting in 18 major Polish cities and established that local authorities often fail to make participatory budgeting a successful innovation in terms of inclusion and diversity by overfocusing on needs and expectations of those who participated in the process (10% of population). Officials assessing the success of participatory budgeting only through the lens of its early adopters risk not addressing the needs of the remaining 90% of the population.

Across Europe, young adults face mounting housing affordability challenges, marked by dependence on private rental market, reliance on family support, and delayed access to ownership. Students are among the most affected groups, as their low and often unstable financial resources leave them especially vulnerable. However, little is known about how these conditions shape the individual experiences and life course decisions of doctoral students. To address this gap, this paper draws on 40 in-depth interviews with PhD candidates in Warsaw, Kraków, and Łódź to explore how they navigate housing constraints. The analysis emphasizes how housing insecurity interacts with personal choices and life trajectories, revealing the ways in which PhD students embody an ‘in-between’ status. They are caught between academic prestige and material insecurity, balancing dependency and autonomy, and reconciling short-term coping strategies with long-term aspirations. While frequently reliant on accommodation in the private rental market or family support, which they associate with a prolonged ‘student life’, homeownership—especially mortgage-financed—emerges as the dominant aspiration culturally linked to markers of adulthood and socioeconomic stability. Finally, although participants voiced strong critiques of underfunded scholarships, unstable employment, and a dysfunctional rental market, these grievances rarely translated into collective action, highlighting the importance of individual strategies and decisions in shaping their housing situation.