ABSTRACT
This chapter re-focuses on community-level life and collective action to examine the evolution of local institutions and their effects over time. Re-examining the institutional landscape of Eguqeni village in Nkayi district nearly two decades later allows to situate local processes of bricolage in the context of wider societal trends. The chapter briefly considers the influence of the state and development initiatives on local level arrangements. It reviews some of the key themes of institutional bricolage, and in so doing touches on ideas about the nature and role of the state in development. Moral economy perspectives usefully offer a balance to state-centric analyses pointing to the importance and robustness of social relationships and tradition. The diversity and the sameness of institutional life well illustrates the endless activity of bricoleurs in making sense of their world—in creatively generating livelihood arrangements that are deeply imbued with meaning.
