Bricolage as a Method in Professional Practice

Abstract

This paper explores bricolage as a qualitative approach to research. Imbued by the broadly linguistic 'bricolage' described by Lévi-Strauss (1962), modern bricolage, as a qualitative research methodology, is best defined by Denzin and Lincoln (2005) as "a complex, dense, reflexive collage-like creation that represents the researcher's images, understandings and interpretations of the world or phenomenon under analysis" (p. 6). It is now regarded as a methodology for professional practice research, including creative studies. It seeks to free bricolage from charges of being "undisciplined" (Roberts, 2018, p. 1), mix-and-match and random (Kincheloe, 2001), and even schizophrenic (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). Our exploration focuses on several features of the methodology: its ability to incorporate and allow eclecticism, multiplicity and diversity of practice; its alignment with a transdisciplinary approach, and its concordance with a portfolio method of curating collections of outputs. As a methodology of emergence, it is tolerant of the stop-start nature of practitioner research we recognise from the tenuous age of COVID-19. It holds possibilities for learners and for mentors.

Transforming planning and policy making processes at the intersections of climate, equity, and decolonization challenges

“…PAR was embedded within an interdisciplinary, critical, qualitative, activist, and practice-oriented bricolage 85 , 86 “concerned with the depth and complexity of a question, what lies below the surface, and the form in which that complexity might best be understood and revealed” (p.2) 87 . This methodological layer was added to ensure that PAR would critically engage with the dominant systems and structures of planning and policy-making that this research was aiming to question and reimagine.…”