Bricolage
Bricolage
Levi-Strauss used the idea of bricolage to contrast the analytic methodology of Western science with what he called a "science of the concrete" in primitive societies.11 The bricoleur scientist does not move abstractly and hierarchically from axiom to theorem to corollary. Bricoleurs construct theories by arranging and rearranging, by negotiating and renegotiating with a set of well-known materials.
If we take Levi-Strauss's description of the two scientific approaches as ideal types and divest them of his efforts to localize them culturally, we can see both in how people program computers. For some people, what is exciting about computers is working within a rule-driven system that can be mastered in a top-down, divide-and-conquer way. Their structured "planner's" approach, the approach being taught in the Harvard programming course, is validated by industry and the academy. It decrees that the "right way" to solve a programming problem is to dissect it into separate parts and design a set of modular solutions that will fit the parts into an intended whole. Some programmers work this way because their teachers or employers insist that they do. But for others, it is a preferred approach; to them, it seems natural to make a plan, divide the task, use modules and subprocedures.
Lisa and Robin offer examples of a very different style. They are not drawn to structured programming; their work at the computer is marked by a desire to play with the elements of the program, to move them around almost as though they were material elements -- the words in a sentence, the notes on a keyboard, the elements of a collage.
While hierarchy and abstraction are valued by the structured programmers' "planner's" aesthetic, bricoleur programmers, like Levi-Strauss's bricoleur scientists, prefer negotiation and rearrangement of their materials. The bricoleur resembles the painter who stands back between brushstrokes, looks at the canvas, and only after this contemplation, decides what to do next. Bricoleurs use a mastery of associations and interactions. For planners, mistakes are missteps; bricoleurs use a navigation of midcourse corrections. For planners, a program is an instrument for premeditated control; bricoleurs have goals but set out to realize them in the spirit of a collaborative venture with the machine. For planners, getting a program to work is like "saying one's piece"; for bricoleurs, it is more like a conversation than a monologue.
- Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete
- By Sherry Turkle and Seymour Papert
- Turkle, S., Papert, S.: Epistemological pluralism and the revaluation of the concrete. Journal of Mathematical Behavior. 11, 1, 3–33 (1992).
[JM + MR] We see “tinkering” as a style of interaction that can be useful for people at all levels of expertise (not just for beginners). In our view, a “bottomup” style (tinkering) is just as legitimate as a “top-down” style (planning). One style might be better than the other in some particular contexts, but neither is inherently better. People don’t necessarily change from “tinkerers” to “planners” as they gain more programming skills and expertise. Some of the best “hackers” program in a tinkering style.
- Utting, I. et al.: Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch – A Discussion. Trans. Comput. Educ. 10, 4, 17:1–17:11 (2010).
Bricolage is a style of construction that places emphasis on concrete experimentation and negotiation with artefacts. Bricolage is situated in the realm of primitive knowledge that concerns the acquisition of practical knowledge and the identification of persistent features and contexts.
The concept of bricolage originates in the work of Claude Levi-Strauss, an anthropologist who studied people working in primitive societies. Levi- Strauss was interested in contrasting approaches to task solving in what he characterised as ‘primitive’ and ‘western’ societies. In western societies, the most advanced form of thought is generally believed to be abstract and scientific.
He defined bricolage as a way of performing work that emphasises human involvement and engagement where subjective interaction with the artefact guides solving of a task. A person who is involved in bricolage style activity is called a bricoleur. This French word is best translated as ‘a handyman’; it emphasises a working style that takes advantage of whatever tools are at hand to perform tasks for which these tools were not specifically designed.
Turkle and Papert have taken up the idea of bricolage and applied it in different fields as a way of validating individual approaches to problem solving
