Dissertation Research: French Agricultural Biotechnology: Divergent Framings of Risk Among Scientists, Farmers and Consumers

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This dissertation project examines the risk framing practices of experts and non-experts by examining the symbolic and institutional cultures in which actors translate perceptions of risk into formal risk-related policy. Conceiving of biotechnological agriculture as a sociotechnical system, the project will compare the development of the process of risk assessment in an expert regulatory apparatus with the emerging risk perception practices of non-experts through three site-specific case studies. The study seeks to understand how French scientists, farmers, and consumers perceive and assess risk, investigating the extent to which divergent framings of risk within and between groups reflect underlying cultural concerns. Arguing that risk construction is both constrained and shaped by complex cultural processes, this dissertation problematizes and compares the risk framing process of experts and non-experts to illustrate the knowledge flows and organizational structure of three key institutions engaged in framing the popular debate concerning the regulation of genetically modified crops in France. The general approach will be to trace the path of one particular transgenic plant variety as it moves from its introduction into French regulatory apparatuses into the wider society as a whole. Utilizing ethnographic methods, critical reading strategies of archival and current print media, and comparative analysis, the study will investigate the processes by which knowledge regarding risk in generated and flows within and between expert and non-expert institutions. Such research will enable an examination into the cultural constraints that shape the French discussion of biotechnological risk.