Institutional Bricolage

I discovered this concept in the paper Farmer’s agency and institutional bricolage in land use plan implementation in upland Laos:

Institutional bricolage is a concept used to describe the process by which individuals and communities adapt and reshape existing institutional arrangements to address new challenges and contexts. In the case of Pa Khom village, institutional bricolage is evident in how farmers, village committees, and elders leverage their knowledge of customary practices and land use arrangements to navigate and implement the changes introduced by the The Agro-Biodiversity Initiative land use plan. The process involves creatively combining old and new rules, norms, and practices to ensure the plan aligns with their livelihood priorities, particularly food security, while also meeting conservation objectives. The paper emphasizes that institutional bricolage is not always equitable, as it can perpetuate existing power dynamics and result in uneven distribution of benefits among community members.