Reshaping institutions : bricolage processes in smallholder forestry in the Amazon

Abstract

This thesis aims at identifying the different kinds of institutional influences on forest practices of small farmers in the Amazon region of Ecuador and Bolivia and how small farmers respond to them. It departs from the perspective that institutions affecting forest practices are subject to processes of institutional bricolage in which small farmers construct their own institutional frameworks by aggregating, altering, or articulating elements of existing disparate institutions. This research demonstrates that institutions, whether introduced by government, NGO, or already existing, are subject to processes of institutional bricolage that can be either conscious and strategic of nature or less conscious and unintentional