Improvising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork (review)

Of all of the forms of collaboration that constitute scholarship, perhaps none has been less written about than the mentoring that goes on between PhD students and their advisors. That bond is at the heart of this book, which is structured around a series of email exchanges that took place in the mid-1990s between Allaine Cerwonka, then a PhD candidate in political science at University of California-Irvine, and a member of her doctoral committee, anthropologist Liisa Malkki. Malkki appears to have gone far beyond the call of duty as a committee member—and not Cerwonka's primary advisor—in guiding her through the pains and pleasures of using participant-observation as her primary research methodology, a somewhat unorthodox choice for a novice political scientist to have made. In the course of these exchanges, along with an introduction, conclusion, and occasional "afterthoughts" that were written subsequent to the primary source email entries, Cerwonka and Malkki reflect on a number of issues, most notably the processual and iterative nature of ethnographic research and the ethical complexities that arise in the course of the delicately balanced relationships we develop with our "informants" in the field.

I initially approached the book with some trepidation, concerned that it ran the risk of becoming the kind of narcissistic, inward-looking, hand-wringing rumination on the perils of representation exemplified by the collection Writing Culture and the many accounts of fieldwork that followed. I am happy to report, however, that for this reader, in contrast to the disabling effects brought about by the Writing Culture moment, Improvising Theory is an invigorating and energizing read, perhaps most especially for graduate students and those who guide them.

In addition to providing a touching portrait of the relationship between Cerwonka and Malkki, the book has much to say about the collaboration between fieldworkers and our "informants." (Following Malkki's example, I continue to use that term even while acknowledging its problematic lineage.) Cerwonka details the emotional and ethical dilemmas she faces in her growing attachments to and sometimes exasperation with the people she encounters in the field. Her fieldwork is based in Melbourne, Australia, and in the course of researching her topic on Australians' struggle over questions of national identity, we witness the steps Cerwonka goes through in establishing contacts with a range of Australians; eventually she narrows down her fieldwork to focus on carrying out interviews and participant-observation in two particular locales, a garden club and a police station.

As is always the case, ethical questions arise in both of these spaces. The police station proved to be the greater challenge, as Cerwonka was confronted with the possibility of her own complicity while witnessing the ways in which the police patrolled and surveilled particular neighborhoods in Melbourne. The insights Cerwonka gained through observing such activities, however, were integral to her growing understanding of how various Australian identities were socially and spatially differentiated. Cerwonka is to be commended in particular for including an account of one rather disquieting episode, in which she accepted a police officer's invitation to watch a drunken woman being strip-searched, thereby inadvertently contributing to the woman's humiliation. Reflecting upon this event in her subsequent email to Malkki, Cerwonka acknowledges her own misjudgment and attributes it to the ever-present desire for data: "There's this lust for more access and knowledge, almost for its own sake" (150). I found her discussion of a disturbing incident quite perceptive and useful as a teachable moment, and I daresay all of us have had occasions in our fieldwork where that "lust for more access and knowledge" has led us to make decisions we have similarly regretted in their aftermath.

The book is also filled with the exhilarating moments that punctuate fieldwork. After a short period away from her research, Cerwonka reenters her field sites and reports to Malkki with obvious delight, "I have reentered both the garden club...