Social representations of agriculture among schoolchildren in northern Portugal: a pilot study with young people in schools from different contexts

Abstract

This article focuses on analysing the social representations of school-age young people about agriculture, in an attempt to gain access to their perceptions, images and meanings, how they construct and communicate them and the possible implications of these perceptions. To this end, focus groups were set up and the data was analysed using max qda plus 2020 content analysis software. The results reflect the dynamics of thinking about agriculture as well as the semantic universe of young people about this activity, suggesting an influence of the socio-economic and geographical context on the construction of social representations about it. On the other hand, the results point, in most cases, to a very superficial and dislocated contact with this object.