No / This study questions the idea that appropriate mechanisms can be designed to
ensure optimum resource use, beneficial collective action and hence to build
social capital. I argue here that the school of ‘institutional crafting’ in natural
resource management is based on concepts which are inadequately socially
informed and which ill-reflect the complexity , diversity and ad hoc nature of
institutional formation.
Three aspects of institutional bricolage are illustrated here: the multiple
identities of the bricoleurs; the frequency of cross-cultural borrowing and of
multi-purpose institutions; and the prevalence of arrangements and norms
which foster co-operation, respect and non-direct reciprocity over lifecourses.
In elaborating the concept of bricolage, I raise questions about whether
local institutions are amenable to design, the scope for negotiating the norms
which underlie institutional arrangements and the extent to which different
institutions may be emancipatory or exclusionary. I conclude that development
interventions aimed at institution building should be based on a socially
informed analysis of the content and effects of institutional arrangements,
rather than on their form alone.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/2632 |
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| Creators | Cleaver, Frances D. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, No full-text in the repository |
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