Central to bricoleuring is the lens adopted by the bricoleur; we make meaning of the world through contexts, and PI firmly believes that a regenerative perspective is essential for any kind of work we do today. This also means that we are constantly evolving, stumbling, and learning, a key principle of the regenerative lens. Bricoleuring is a process; the same approach can be used in two different groups and very diverse insights, reflections, and learnings might emerge from the two. That is the joy of the mise en place .
Mise en place : The Bricolage
Bespoke facilitation and bricolage support for every context.
Mise en place
(pronounced me-zohn plahs) is a French culinary phrase that means ‘putting into place’. Before a meal is cooked, every ingredient is prepared, every tool arranged, every possibility anticipated. The cooking itself becomes possible because of the care invested beforehand. And yet, what happens during the process and what emerges could surprise everyone. At PI, we think of bricolage as
mise en place
… setting the stage for ruminating and acting, for being and doing.
Bricolage, one of the offerings of PI, is the process of creating something from a range of ‘ingredients’; it brings together careful observation, ideas and perspectives, experiences, relationships and histories, to unravel a co-created artefact. It’s the community engagement we do when we try to make meaning from the complex interlinkages of lived reality. It’s the bringing together of the various ‘departments’ or ‘teams’ within our organisations to form a cohesive whole. It’s the commonplace book we keep for ourselves to help understand the world better.
How we envision bricoleuring. Take a moment to reflect on what resonates with you in this image.
Modern institutions reward speed, certainty, and immediate action, leaving little room for the slower work of observation, dialogue, and sense-making from which wiser decisions often emerge. Mise en place is the space for that deep fulfilling engagement.
Worldview, intuition, instinct, care and compassion come together with fact and theory in a process that creates something quite different from what one may have begun with. No preconceived output or outcome in mind, co-creating meanings for something new to emerge…and in the process an unfolding of capacities.
Our work is informed by nearly five decades of collective engagement across India's social sector, spanning more than twenty states and union territories. On this journey, we have learnt alongside community leaders, teachers, researchers, local governments, mothers, children, farmers, and countless others whose lived experience continues to shape our own understanding. Our practice has also been shaped by some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in this space, including Prof. Robert Chambers, Dr. Daniel Christian Wahl, Aloysius Prakash Fernandez, and Arun Maira, whose ideas continue to influence how we approach participation, regeneration, and systems thinking.
Get in Touch
If your community, organisation, or team is navigating complexity, exploring change, or searching for deeper coherence, we would be glad to facilitate a process of bricolage with you. Every context is different; our role is not to arrive with ready-made answers, but to create the conditions in which new understanding can emerge with you.
