Jugaad
Last updated: Saturday, 29 June 2024
It means different things to different people in different contexts: it is used to explain the process of reconfiguring materialities to overcome obstacles and find solutions; it could mean working the system to one’s advantage; it is used as a synonym in certain contexts for gambling and corruption; and across large parts of western and northern India, there is a self-rigged vehicle, that also goes by the name of Jugaad; it is as much a noun as it is a verb – concept, process and product all rolled into one at the same time – an idea characterised by plasticity and an articulation that has a wide range of meanings and usages that revolve primarily around problem solving or solution finding. — Pankhaj Sekhsaria, Instrumental Lives: An Intimate Biography of an Indian Laboratory (2019)
Key features: Reconfigured materiality, problem-solving, driven by resource constraints, bridging knowledge systems and ways of knowing, liminality, not (intended) for commercialisation, an activity of the commons, a culture of recycling (waste, scrap, junk) (Sekhsaria 2019).
From Hindi-Urdu; idiomatic to South Asian contexts.
Temporary quick-fixes.
- [&] See also: bricolage? (even beyond improvisation, both are forms of constrained problem-solving)
Tags: materiality
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