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Book Review The Practice of Everyday Life by

Michel de Certeau. Translated by Steven F.
Rendall
ARTICLE in AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY NOVEMBER 1987
Impact Factor: 3.17 DOI: 10.1086/228800

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Michele Lamont
Harvard University
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Review
Author(s): Michele Lamont
Review by: Michele Lamont
Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 93, No. 3 (Nov., 1987), pp. 720-721
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2780302
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AmericanJournalof Sociology
thoroughstudyof thesocial and cognitivedevelopmentof contemporary
linguisticsand its relationshipswithliterarystudies,anthropology,
psychology,and sociologyhas yetto be written.
The Practice of EverydayLife. By Michel de Certeau. Translated by
Steven F. Rendall. Berkeleyand Los Angeles:University
of California
Press, 1984. Pp. 229. $24.95.
Michele Lamont
PrincetonUniversity
FormerJesuit,eruditehistorian,ethnologist,memberof the Freudian
school of Paris, Michel de Certeau died at the beginningof 1986. The
Practice ofEverydayLife is one of his books currently
available in English.It is concernedwitha themecentralto ongoingresearchin cultural
anthropology,
social history,and culturalstudies:thethemeofresistance.
De Certeau develops a theoreticalframeworkfor analyzinghow the
"weak" make use of the "strong"and createforthemselvesa sphereof
autonomousactionand self-determination
withintheconstraints
thatare
imposed on them. Locating his theoreticalproblemin the marginsof
Michel Foucault's microphysicsof power, de Certeau documentsand
analyzesinfinitesimal
proceduresofresistanceagainstapparatusesofcontrol.The gistofhis argumentis as follows:Dominatedactorshave tactics
to manipulateeventsand turnthemintoopportunities
(p. xix). They try
to satisfytheirown needs by foilingthe rules of the game imposedby
others,tryingto getaway withthings,misinterpreting
orders,and so on.
Their problemis how to affirmtheiridentitiesand to get along in networksof alreadyestablishedsituations.Their solutionis to manipulate
these situations.De Certeau providesexamples of how this is accomplished.La perruque(literally,thewig) is a case in point.It refersto how
Frenchworkerssatisfytheirown needs on companytime(e.g., writing
love lettersduringofficehours,usingscrapsto fabricategoods).Workers
create gratuitousproducts,independentfromprofit-making
rationality.
These symbolizemoralresistanceto orderand to the curseof havingto
make a living,as well as solidaritywith theirco-workers.De Certeau
attemptsto conceptualizethiskindofpracticeas acts ofreappropriation,
"schemataforaction"or "ways of operating"in variousareas of activity
(e.g., reading[interpreting
texts],talking,believing,and walking).Each
sectionof the book focuseson one of thesedimensions.
Contraryto otherswho have workedon resistancestrategies,de Certeau is moreinterestedin creativediversionsthanin directoppositionor
passiveresistance.He givesspecialattentionto strategiesofmanipulating
meaning. Part 4, therefore,will be of interestto those who work on
intertextuality
and postmodernism.
De Certeau'swork anticipatesproblematicscurrently
beingdiscussed
in Americananthropology
by, forinstance,JamesClifford.Buildingon
720

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Book Reviews
his previouswork (L'ecriture de l'histoire, 1978), he discussesthe epistemologicalproblemsassociatedwiththe analysisof nondiscursive
practices of resistanceoftendescribedin termof flair,taste, instinct(e.g.,
what makes somebody"streetsmart"). Theorizingabout this kind of
activityimpliessubjectingthe "unconsciousnessof practitioners
to the
" De CerteaucriticizesBourdieu'swork
reflection
ofthenon-practitioners.
on practiceforfallingintothistrap.
De Certeau'sprojectis typicallyCartesian:it developsa complexsystem of categoriesto "articulate"what is practiceand how it emerges.
Whereasthe firstpart of the book is moreor less straightforward
in its
objectives,the structure
of theargumentweakensas we progress.Given
themetaphoricaland ellipticalnatureof de Certeau'sproseand thelack
of systematization
of his argument,the Universityof CaliforniaPress
shouldhave providedboth an indexand an editor.
De Certeau'sbook does not satisfyour curiosity.Whereasde Certeau
limitshimselfto circumscribing
a problematic,a healthydialogue between empiricaldata and theoryis more appropriatefordevelopinga
theoryofresistance.Furthermore,
drawingon an impressively
largeliteraturefromlinguistics,philosophy,anthropology,
and sociology,de Certeau does not provide his materialwith enough conceptualunity.His
contributionremindsme of the popular culturefromthe northeastof
Brazil thathe studied.It is playful,colorful,complex,disrespectful,
and
undisciplined.However, de Certeau's inquisitivemind mightoffera
numberof stimulating
insights,ifone is willingto be patientand to read
thisbook at a leisurelypace.
Game Theoryin theSocial Sciences. Vol. 2, A Game-theoretic
Approach
toPoliticalEconomy.By MartinShubik.Cambridge,Mass.: MIT Press,
1987. Pp. vii+ 744. $47.50 (cloth);$15.95 (paper).
PiotrSwistak
State UniversityofNew Yorkat StonyBrook
This is thesecondvolumeofMartinShubik'sGame Theoryin theSocial
Sciences, of which volume 1 was entitledConceptsand Solutions. The
twovolumestogetherforman almostencyclopedicreviewofgametheory
and itsapplicationsto thesocial sciences.The mainobjectiveofA GametheoreticApproachto Political Economyis to developa generaltheoretical frameworkforeconomicanalysisthatmightbe capable of including
traditionally
noneconomicfactors,thatis, sociological,political,psychological,or legal. Shubikclaimsthatmoderngame theoryprovidessucha
unifying
framework.
While thefirstvolumelays out the basics of game theoryand is thereforeaddressedto a moregeneralaudience,thepresentvolumesurveysits
applicationsin political economyand is clearlyorientedtoward economists. It presupposesa knowledgeof the conceptualgame-theoretic
721

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