A new critical social science research agenda on pesticides

Becky Mansfield, Marion Werner, Christian Berndt (), Annie Shattuck, Ryan Galt, Bryan Williams, Lucía Argüelles, Fernando Rafael Barri, Marcia Ishii, Johana Kunin, Pablo Lapegna, Adam Romero, Andres Caicedo, Abhigya, María Soledad Castro-Vargas, Emily Marquez, Diana Ojeda, Fernando Ramirez and Anne Tittor
Additional contact information
Becky Mansfield: Ohio State University
Marion Werner: University at Buffalo
Christian Berndt: University of Zurich
Annie Shattuck: Indiana University-Bloomington
Ryan Galt: University of California
Bryan Williams: Mississippi State University
Lucía Argüelles: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
Fernando Rafael Barri: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
Marcia Ishii: Pesticide Action Network North America
Johana Kunin: Campus Miguelete - Edificio de Ciencias Sociales
Pablo Lapegna: University of Georgia
Adam Romero: University of Washington Bothell
Andres Caicedo: University of California
Abhigya: Indian Institute of Technology
María Soledad Castro-Vargas: Autonomous University of Barcelona
Emily Marquez: Pesticide Action Network North America
Diana Ojeda: Universidad de los Andes
Fernando Ramirez: National University of Costa Rica at Heredia
Anne Tittor: University of Jena

Agriculture and Human Values, 2024, vol. 41, issue 2, No 1, 395-412

Abstract: Abstract The global pesticide complex has transformed over the past two decades, but social science research has not kept pace. The rise of an enormous generics sector, shifts in geographies of pesticide production, and dynamics of agrarian change have led to more pesticide use, expanding to farm systems that hitherto used few such inputs. Declining effectiveness due to pesticide resistance and anemic institutional support for non-chemical alternatives also have driven intensification in conventional systems. As an inter-disciplinary network of pesticide scholars, we seek to renew the social science research agenda on pesticides to better understand this suite of contemporary changes. To identify research priorities, challenges, and opportunities, we develop the pesticide complex as a heuristic device to highlight the reciprocal and iterative interactions among agricultural practice, the agrochemical industry, civil society-shaped regulatory actions, and contested knowledge of toxicity. Ultimately, collaborations among social scientists and across the social and biophysical sciences can illuminate recent transformations and their uneven socioecological effects. A reinvigorated critical scholarship that embraces the multifaceted nature of pesticides can identify the social and ecological constraints that drive pesticide use and support alternatives to chemically driven industrial agriculture.

Keywords: Pesticides; Global pesticide complex; Pesticide industry; Pesticide regulation; Pesticide toxicity; Pesticide social science research agenda (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10492-w

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