Cooking with the Unfamiliar: Resources for Improvisation

Abstract

This paper investigates the types of resources actors draw from when improvising in the face of unfamiliar settings. Using the empirical context of underground restaurants – episodic dining establishments that occur in a variety of unexpected locations and must regularly improvise to problem solve emergent crises – I draw from ethnographic observations and interviews with organizers to demonstrate that three interlinked resources support improvisation: affective, material, and cognitive. Whereas previous work has focused substantially on the cognitive resources of individual improvisers, the findings presented here contribute to scholarship by highlighting other potentially valuable resources, notably material and affective resources, that actors draw from to improvise. In addition to a stockpile of knowledge and intuition, this paper shows that improvisation also relies on physical means – the raw materials to enable spontaneous action – and the emotional desire, motivations, and understanding to do so. ...