To be(e) a(t) risk. Contextualising the perceptions of increased bee mortality as a risk among Swiss farmers

Sammanfattning: The phenomenon of increased bee mortality has reached wide attention and concern among Swiss farmers. This thesis analyses, from a phenomenological approach, how the farmers - as agricultural key actors interacting closely with honey bees - perceive increased bee mortality as a risk. The quantitative analysis indicates that the age, the perception of the future of global agriculture and all farm specific variables - farm size, geographical zone and production method - contain a statistically significant probability to in uence the intensity of the perception of increased bee mortality as a risk. The qualitative analysis points out that the farmers perceive increased bee mortality as a complex and global risk embedded in \risk networks". According to the farmers, increased bee mortality is a risk with regard to pollination, harvest and nutrition. Therefore, increased bee mortality is related to the economic risk of income loss, the social risk of insecure food production and the ecological risk of an interrupted food cycle. However, simultaneously increased bee mortality is at risk, due to the impact of industrial agriculture and pesticides on bees. In this context, increased bee mortality is related to the political risk of the current agricultural policy, the ecological risk of pesticides and the social or cultural risk of pesticide use. The farmers' perceptions of increased bee mortality embedded in these "risk networks" allude to the broader context of three underlying areas of tension at the intersection of culture - namely agri-culture, the current consumer culture and culture of be(e)ing-in-theworld - power and sustainability.