de Certeau, Michel (1925–1986)

Michel de Certeau was born in Chambéry in France in 1925 and lived until 1986. At university he studied classics and philosophy but later trained as, and [Page 426]became, a Jesuit priest. He continued his academic interests, mainly in theology, but after the political unrest of 1968, de Certeau shifted his interests more toward issues of society. De Certeau went on to teach at several universities, including Geneva and San Diego, and published on a wide variety of subjects, such as history, religion, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, but it is his work on everyday life that has been fundamental in establishing his academic legacy.

De Certeau suggests that individuals have little control over many aspects of their lives; however, everyday life is extremely complex and multifaceted and allows some room for maneuver and individuality. For example, de Certeau suggests that when an individual reads a text, though the words on a page are set (in black and white), the reader frequently provides his or her own meanings and interpretations.

He is not suggesting that texts are open to any number of endless readings but rather that texts are like a city, which, though they provide only certain avenues (a “map”), individuals can find their own paths (or “tours”) through. This is an example of how individuals “make do” (faire-avec) with the resources that society gives them.

De Certeau's idea of “making do” is a theme that has frequently been used by many other writers as an example of social resistance. It is possible to see some overt examples of social resistance in the work of de Certeau. For instance, a much-cited example is that of la perruque (or “the wig”), which is “the worker's own work disguised as work for his employer” (1984, 25). This is the way in which workers can use time and facilities at work to their own advantage, such as producing objects for themselves. And it is evident that these kinds of social resistance have informed the work of authors such as John Fiske and Henry Jenkins in their application of de Certeau to contemporary forms of consumption and the opportunities for resistance that they suggest these can afford.

This has often led to the work of de Certeau being dismissed as excessively optimistic. However, de Certeau is “not nearly so frivolous as some of his followers” (Buchanan 2000, 87), and this dismissal also somewhat misses de Certeau's key point. Focus on obvious and visible forms of resistance overlooks the importance of more common and mundane practices, which are more prominent and significant in the work of de Certeau, according to Ben Highmore—for example, a worker at a machine whose body sometimes involuntarily convulses, unintentionally indicating that he is not himself part of the machine, but rather human, and individual still. By no means an act of overt resistance, but a clear sign that the person is different to, and not, a machine.

In theorizing everyday practices, de Certeau employs the concepts of strategies and tactics. Strategies for de Certeau are similar to Pierre Bourdieu's discussion of habitus; hence, these are linked to places and the appropriate manners specific to that particular location. However, in contrast to Bourdieu, de Certeau sees no “single logic,” as there will always be room for multiple actions and practices (Gardiner 2000, 170). These multiple actions de Certeau refers to as tactics, which involve the disguises, deceptions, bluffs, stubbornness, and personalization of experiences that take place within everyday life.

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