Thesis
Pesticide perceptions in a South African agricultural community
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2009
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/102131
Abstract
Due to the scientific uncertainty of pesticide impacts on human health, limiting pesticide exposure becomes an important task. Socio-economic factors influence individuals' knowledge of pesticides including how to use pesticides, possible effects of pesticide exposure, precautionary measures. Applying a functional approach, I use data from participant observation, informal interviews, and semi-structured interviews with community members in Groblersdal, South Africa, (an intensive irrigation and commercial agricultural community) to examine the influences of people's perceptions of pesticides. I emphasize that research should focus not only on farmworkers but on community members of intensive agricultural communities like Groblersdal. I argue that people in Groblersdal construct risk from the information immediately available to them, and they use pesticides most fitting to their social and economic context. By understanding how and why pesticides are used can enhance pesticide awareness programs that only target individuals' knowledge, attitude, and practices.
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Details
- Title
- Pesticide perceptions in a South African agricultural community
- Creators
- Drew S. Helmus
- Contributors
- Marsha B. Quinlan (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525182101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis