Representations of pesticides and social practices: the case of French farmers

Pesticides and their use in agriculture are important social issues. We conducted research to study the construction of this sensitive social object through the lens of social representations (study of the structural organisation of the social representations of pesticides) and their anchoring in three contexts that differ in terms of farming practices (Martinique, Brittany and Southern France). Our research was composed of two phases: hierarchical associations (n = 213) and a context independence test questionnaire (n = 124), conducted among farmers from the three study sites. The results indicate three representational fields that reflect salient issues in each agricultural territory. These illustrate the heuristic nature of social representations in the analysis of agricultural practices and pesticide use among French farmers.