"While herbicide resistance has been an agricultural issue for decades, it is currently getting growing attention from academics, chemical companies, extension educators, and farmers. This is largely the result of weeds' increasing resistance to the popular herbicide glyphosate. Although an Integrated Weed Management approach is recommended to combat herbicide resistance, farmers are hesitant to adopt it and instead continue to express faith in herbicide solutions. Recognizing that society and nature are inseparable causes of this phenomenon, I introduce a sociological perspective to a field dominated by 'hard sciences' in order to clarify why farmers maintain faith in and use of herbicides in the face of increasing herbicide resistance and suggested alternative integrated management practices. In order to do this, I employ a three chapter format. My first chapter focuses on how farmers draw on master frames to understand and make meaning of their reliance on herbicides. This uncovers issues of farmers' false trust in herbicides due to structurally binding conditions. My second chapter draws from place literature to understand herbicide resistant weeds as disruptions of place, arguing that these weeds present an observable challenge to farmers' herbicide dependence that threatens and therefore triggers farmers' place attachment. Together, these chapters describe how farmers understand herbicide resistance and their own reactions to it based on socio-environmental stimuli. Finally, my third chapter focuses on how quality data about farmers can be collected. Drawing from mixed methods, I suggest a framework of relational pragmatism that can be used to more effectively achieve this goal."--Page ii.
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