 Institutional bricolage in the Amazon forests
Contact: Jessica de Koning
Many different institutions affect forest practices of small farmers in the Amazon. Forest practices are structured by for example local traditions containing cultural beliefs, social norms on appropriate practices, or community rules on access. On the other hand, forest practices are affected by external global standards on sustainable forest practices, formal regulations of the government, or conventions of NGO’s on community development. My PhD research investigated the different institutional influences on forest practices of Amazonian farmers and specifically looked at how these farmers respond to these institutions. As it turns out, the organization of forest practices by local farmers is based on processes of recombining, altering or articulating various institutions or elements of them. These processes, called institutional bricolage processes, most visibly occur when a new external institution, for example a forest regulation, is introduced in a community. This forest regulation becomes subject to processes of institutional bricolage of which it is impossible to predict the future. Farmers, thus, must be regarded as bricoleurs who have the capacity to respond to the introduction of new institutions.
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