Integrated pest management (IPM) is a multi-layered approach to reducing pest pressure, primarily in agriculture, but also in national parks and urban settings. Its purpose is to maintain acceptable levels of productivity whilst avoiding the adverse effects associated with indiscriminate chemical control, such as pesticide resistance, secondary infestation, resurgence and harm to human health and the environment. It is a complex system, science-driven and information-based, and there are a wide range of actors involved in its development and implementation. These actors occupy various social locations. They are grouped in institutions for research and extension, in industry and related associations, in funding bodies, policy-making departments, and agricultural communities. IPM requires concerted effort from all involved; yet in some cases, social inequality characterises relations between the groups. Consequently, different groups address different layers of the IPM whole. Some groups have greater societal power to promote their developmental activities than others do, and when these differing activities meet in practice, as they must, conflict and contradiction can arise. This thesis attempts to understand the social construction of IPM by examining the process of IPM development and implementation. It follows the Science and Technology Studies (STS, also termed Science, Technology and Society) theoretical framework of the interrelationship, rather than separateness, of science, technology and society. It examines the way social relations influence technological developments in IPM, and the way IPM technologies influence social relations.