ABSTRACT
This chapter advances the concept of institutional bricolage as a tool for understanding just how institutional alteration occurs. Departing from the normative use of terms such as 'adaptation' and 'resilience', it offers ways of analysing how institutions evolve through human action in response to new circumstances, but are shaped with reference to accepted or past arrangements. The chapter summarises some key aspects and elements of bricolage and serve as an introduction to the chapters which substantiate these. The creativity and diversity of institutional design and practice creates room for manoeuvre and new possibilities for some people but simultaneously reproduces and even reinforces social inequalities for others. The chapter also attempts to contribute to the theorising of structure—agency relations as they articulate through institutional bricolage. It embraces complexity and makes visible some of the more opaque aspects of institutions—to shine a light into those shadowy places so as to explore how they work and to what effect.
