Practices of Everyday Life and the Tactics of Consumption

Michel de Certeau's account of how ordinary people creatively use, divert and 'poach' the products and spaces that powerful institutions impose on them.

Definition

In de Certeau's framework, the practices of everyday life are the ways ordinary people operate within systems they do not control; 'tactics' are the improvised, opportunistic uses of those systems, in contrast to the 'strategies' of the institutions that own the terrain.

Scope

This topic focuses on de Certeau's theory of everyday practice and its influence on cultural studies. It examines the distinction between strategies and tactics, the figures of walking, reading and cooking as creative practices, and the way John Fiske and others applied de Certeau to argue for the productivity of popular consumption. It complements the broader theories topic by concentrating on this single, highly influential framework.

Core questions

• What is the difference between strategies and tactics in de Certeau's theory?
• How does de Certeau treat consumption as a 'secondary production'?
• How do practices such as walking, reading and cooking exemplify everyday creativity?
• How did cultural studies apply, and overextend, de Certeau's ideas?

Key concepts

• strategies
• tactics
• making do
• poaching
• consumption as production
• the practice of walking

Key theories

Strategies and tactics

De Certeau distinguishes the 'strategies' of institutions that command a proper place from the 'tactics' of the weak, who lack such a place and must seize fleeting opportunities within the territory of the powerful.

Consumption as production

De Certeau argues that use, or consumption, is itself a hidden 'secondary production': in using products people make something of their own, even if they cannot change what is offered to them.

Popular creativity

Fiske draws on de Certeau to argue that popular culture is created by people in the act of consumption, as they make their own meanings and pleasures from the resources the culture industries provide.

History

De Certeau's L'invention du quotidien appeared in 1980 and in English as The Practice of Everyday Life in 1984, with a second volume on living and cooking following. The work became enormously influential in 1980s and 1990s cultural studies, especially through John Fiske's Understanding Popular Culture (1989), which used de Certeau to ground a strongly audience-centred, optimistic account of popular culture.

Debates

Cultural populism

Whether the de Certeau–Fiske emphasis on the creativity of consumption usefully recovers ordinary agency, or slides into an uncritical 'cultural populism' that overstates resistance and ignores power.

Key figures

• Michel de Certeau
• Luce Giard
• John Fiske

Seminal works

• decerteau1984
• decerteau1998
• fiske1989

Frequently asked questions

What is a simple example of a 'tactic'?

De Certeau's classic example is 'la perruque' — workers doing their own work on their employer's time and with the employer's resources. They cannot own the workplace (that would be a strategy), but they tactically divert its time and materials to their own ends.