Presenter: Maarten Loopmans, Professor in Human Geography and Political Ecology at the University of Leuven, Belgium
Physical presence : SIAS Meeting Hall
Virtual presence : Future Himalayan Research Seminar Series
Date: 17th October 2025
Time: 3:30 to 5:00 p.m
Seminar Overview
25 years ago, Frances Cleaver introduced the concept of institutional bricolage, pointing at the gradual, path-dependent, interactive development of institutions for the governance of common resources. Socio-material bricolage takes these insights one step further to emphasize the co-production of institutions and infrastructures for common resource development.
Building on two case studies of technological innovation in irrigation in Turkey and Malta, socio-material bricolage is elaborated from a strategic-relational perspective and its consequences for processes of infrastructural design and implementation are spelled out. Socio-material bricolage allows us to move beyond studies of mere technology adoption, and discusses the interaction between infrastructural and institutional change, the impact on power relations between users and their role as strategizing actors in infrastructural development.
How and why does the introduction of new technologies trigger a process of socio-material bricolage? How and to what extent can we plan for this and guarantee a smooth and just process of socio-material change? These and other questions will be presented for discussion.