Practice of Everyday Life

Theoretically rich and a great book to elicit thinking about how readers use text. Recommended for any reading or theory class.

For a French theorist, de Certeau is reasonably readable. I have only read this in translation, so I will add that caveat. The ideas here are accessible on their own, but the text also features interesting commentary on other philosophers and ideas in a rich discussion. I am particularly a fan of some of his discussions of speech acts, urban spaces, and the grammar of walking. His discussion of strategy and tactics is also an interesting reorientation of ideas.

This book is so good. Well worth all of the difficult concepts to get at the core of what de Certeau is saying.

I purchased the book as required reading for a doctoral level research methods course. It is a translation of work by DeCerteau that is highly conceptual in nature. The focus is upon observing, experiencing and seeking to represent the life-world from a reference point and through a lens that acknowledges that we continually and simultaneously interact, collide, incorporate and are immersed in our experiences of the world and social phenomena. Deconstructing everyday practices, the work seeks to refocus thinking and assert new angles of vision that "make the familiar strange." I especially enjoyed the chapter about navigation and travel described as a train journey in which the typical circumstance of our movement about in a seeming stationary world is reversed to our immobility as the world passes by, until we arrive and the perception is again reversed.The book is a dense read, which may be due to the theoretical content and to some extent to the translation. In some instances, I found the inclusion of the French phrase by the original author helpful in opening meaning and facilitating understanding when I could not quite grasp the idea from the translation. The work is interesting, but is by no means to be taken up as recreational or light reading. Rather, I found it necessary to bite off in pieces leaving time to digest before moving on to further consumption of the book.

Whoever translated this shouldn’t even write a book. The way he put the words in a sentences does not connect well with each other. Made me want to rip the book in half.

Probably good for someone who can understand it. This way way over my head. Not as straight forward as the description makes it seem. Still, I was able to catch a few little tidbits. Get after it, if you can handle the beast.

Optimistic view of human life, beautifully written. Essential reading for me. I come back to this book year after year.

I was looking for this book because as a history mayor i'm trying to for 'lo cotidiano' in the past. I believe that the political aspects of history are important but if one is trying to make a good representation of the past, one must consider the everyday practices in every epoch.

This book is a seminal text about our contemporary society although it has been written a few decades ago.De Certeau looks at our urban way of living to uncover how we find ways to make our environment our own, although it has been designed by others to different ends.This is a most essential read to engage with and think about the city, the urban and built environment and the ways individuals and society interact with it.Warmly recommended.Part I: A very ordinary cultureI. A Common Place: Ordinary LanguageII. Popular Cultures: Ordinary LanguageIII. "Making Do": Uses and TacticsPart II: Theories of the art of practiceIV. Foucault and BourdieuV. The Arts of TheoryVI. Story TimePart III: Spatial PracticesVII. Walking in the cityVIII. Railway navigation and incarcerationIX. Spatial storiesPart IV: Uses of LanguagesX. The Scriptural economyXI. Quotations of VoicesXII. Reading as poachingPart V: Ways of BelievingXIII. Believing and making people believeXIV. The Unnamable

I have found using this helps me to value each day and to find something of value in the ordinary. It is an antidote to the negative way life seems to be lived

More than the complex philosophical work than I expecyed. Perhaps good to just dip in and out of rather than a concentrated read.

I found this book incredibly hard to read. Good luck with it.

goodd