De Certeau Michel Oppositional Practices Everyday Life

On the Oppositional Practices of Everyday Life Author(s): Michel De Certeau, Fredric Jameson and Carl Lovitt Reviewed work(s):
Source: Social Text, No. 3 (Autumn, 1980), pp. 3-43 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466341 . Accessed: 24/11/2012 07:10
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Practices Everyday of On The Oppositional Life

MICHEL CERTEAU DE
I. READING THE ANONYMOUS
Thisessayis dedicated theordinary Thecommon hero.Disseminated characto man. ter.Untoldwanderer. invoking, theoutset mynarratives, absent In of at this who being their I and as of he givesthem beginning necessity,question myself to thedesire which the to which were figures impossible object.Whenwe dedicate himdocuments formerly in offered homageto divinities to inspirational or whatdo we ask ofthis oracle muses, with rumor history willauthorize tospeakormakebelievable the of that us what merged we say? Thisanonymous comes hero from back.He isthemurmur societies. of he way Always He He to But in precedestexts. doesn'tevenwaitforthem. paysno attention them. written he he of representations gets along. Littleby little occupiesthe center our scientific The scenarios. cameras havedeserted actors the whodominated names proper and socialemblems order turn in to toward chorus extras the on themselves of massed the thenfinally fixthemselves thecrowd thepublic. to on of The sociologization sidelines, and anthropologization research of the and where privilege anonymous theeveryday taken thewhole.Slowly representafor the close-ups isolatemetonymic details-parts tiveswhopreviously and are from scene the families, symbolized groups, orders effaced wheretheyreigned the has the during timeof the name.Number arrived, timeof of of of It and democracy, thebigcity, bureaucracies, cybernetics.is a supple continuous woventightly a fabric of heroes like without orseam,a multitude quantified tear crowd, who lose their namesand faceswhile the of and becoming mobile language calculations in rationalities which to currents thestreet. belong no one. Ciphered havelongseemed be theplacein to tales,folk wisdom, Popularcultures, proverbs, which be and Yet to the sucha heromight sought reidentified. itis notpossible confine to modelsof a popularculture the past, the countryside, to primitive or operative in of This peoples.Theyexist thestrongholdsthecontemporary economy. is thecasewith This phenomenon even [la ripping-off perruque:"wigging"]. spreadseverywhere, if of management penalizesit or "looks the otherway" in orderto knownothing it.' Accusedofstealing, retrieving or material their profit, using machines for own the for of their ownends,workers "ripoff" who subtract from factory time the than (rather goods, foronlyscraps used)with viewto work are a that free, is and without creative, precisely
Pour une Michel de Certeau'sforthcoming The presenttextis an excerpt from book, Pratiques quotidiennes. tresordinaire," sectionwas abridgedfrom article,"Une culture his ordinaire. The first semiotiquede la culture and teaches in the in Esprit 10 (October 1978), pp. 3-26. The author is a memberof the Ecole freudienne La at of Diego. He has written prisede la parole (1968), Departmentof Literature theUniversity California-San (2nd ed., 1978). (1973), La Cultureau pluriel(1974), and L'Ecriturede I'histoire L'Absent de I'histoire 'See Miklos Haraszti, Salaire aux pieces (Paris, 1976), pp. 136-145.
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the for profit.In the veryplaces wherereigns machinetheymustserve,theyinveigle the of inventing to signify intended own know-how their gratuitous products solely pleasure of witha gift. Withthecomplicity by theirworkand to respondto thefellowship workers thusputa checkon thecompetition fomented between thembythe of otherworkers (who one effects some blows within domain of the establishedorder.Far from the factory), or being a regressiontoward handicraft individualunits of production,ripping-off intotheindustrial reintroduces order)the"popular" space (thatis to say,intothepresent tacticsof othertimesor places. in existence suchpractices of to Any numberof examplescould testify thewidespread of the most normativeinstitutions moderntimes.With the appropriate modifications, flourish withinbureaucratic commercialadministrations or equivalents of ripping-off as They are doubtlesstodayas extensive ever (and as little just as much as in factories. studied in theirown right),fullyas much the object of deep suspicion,censure,and omission. Nor is it only on shop floors and offices that this happens, but also in museums and specialized journals, where such practicesare debased and often of or researchtend to consignedto oblivion. Thus the institutions ethnological folklore or the retain fromsuch practicesand activities merestphysical linguistic objects,which and theirplaces of origin,placed under are then labelled accordingto theirthematics glass, offeredup for exegesis, and asked to disguise,beneath the peasant "values" of the of or proposed forthe edification the curiosity citydwellers, legitimation an order and "natural." In othercases, from whichits custodiansconsiderto be immemorial the of such social operations,theyextracttools and productsto be ranged in languages exhibitsof technicalgadgets, spread out inertly along the bordersof an untroubled system. whichis subverted just such orderof things Yet it is verypreciselythe effective by illusionsas to theirultimate tacticsfortheirown ends, without any practical "popular" whereideological discourse Where dominating effects. powersexploittheorderof things, represses or ignores it, tactics fool this order and make it the field of their art. one by Thereby the institution is called to serve findsitselfinfiltrated a styleof social and a styleof moralresistance-thatis, by an a styleof technicalinvention, exchange, for in whichare also waysof asking something return), economyof the "gift"(generosities whichare forms or of "moves," "trumphs," "strikes"[coups](operations by an aesthetic of of artistic (so expression),and byan ethicof tenacity manythousands waysto denythe This is what or of whether law, meaning, even fatality). establishedorderanylegitimacy, and not some alien corpus,anatomizedforthe purposesof "popular" culturereallyis, whichreduplicates exhibit,prepared and "quoted" by a system upon these objects the same situationit has preparedforits living subjects. The increasing of compartmentalization timeand space, the disjunctive logic of the in of labor, findsno adequate counterbalance the conjunctive ritualsof specializations of thisorganization mass communications. Yet the empirical cannotbe transformed fact into the law of living human subjects, individualor collective. It can indeed be the "gifts"of our masters,offer exchange in outsmartedby serviceswhich,emulating drawn fromthe storehouseof the veryinstitutions whichisolate and program products in marksthe those who work in them.This practiceof economicembezzlement reality It return a sociopoliticalethicwithin economicsystem. is thereby doubtrelated of the no to Mauss' notion of the potlatch,that game of voluntary whichobliges to prestation
Practices Everyday
a and socialcircuit around "obligation giveinreturn." the to reciprocity organizes whole is no the law Thiskindofemulation ofcourse longer economic ofourownsocieties: the is and between are basic unitof liberalism theabstract suchunits individual, exchanges Today,indeed,thisfundamental equivalent. organizedaroundmoneyas a universal as as which unsettles liberal the of returns a question system a postulate individualism into of is whole: thusan a priori western history transformed itspointof implosion. as like within western seemstopersist Meanwhile, economy something thetrace potlatch on our but ofa different ofproduction:survives into ownsystem, on themargins, mode it in however or in the interstices. even knowsdevelopment, It illegitimate, advanced itself. politics the"gift" The a of of liberalism also thereby becomes tactic subversion. By waste in of was loss what theeconomy thegift a willed andan intentional thesametoken, is within profit the transformed a transgression, into as for economy standing thefigure or of excess(spoilage),forcontestation repudiation profit), forcrime of (violation (the private property).
II. ON TACTICS
An initial to of ofthe life approach theunderstanding oppositional practices everyday be made through distinction the between and tactics. call strategy I the may strategy calculus(or themanipulation) relations force of of which becomes whenever a possible ofwilland power(a business an army, city, scientific a a subject institution) enterprise, can be isolated. a of as a circumscribed propre Strategy postulatesplacesusceptible being and of beingthe base from whererelations be adminstered an exteriority can with of orthreats orcompetitors, thecountryside a city, the enemies, (clients targets surrounding and all rationalizaetc.). As inmanagement, "strategic" objectives objectsofresearch, tionbegins distinguishing"appropriate" its an from "environment," is,the that by place of itsownpowerand will.A Cartesian ifyouwill:to circumscribe one's gesture, place own in a world bewitched theinvisible oftheOther. gesture scientific, A of by powers or modernity. political, military The establishment a caesurabetween appropriated of an place and its otheris considerable someofwhich must notedimmediately: be effects, by accompanied It on one (1) The proper of place is a victory placeovertime. permits to capitalize to prepare future for andtogiveitself an indepenthus acquired advantages, expansions dence in relation the variability circumstances. is a mastery timeby the to of It of ofan autonomous founding place. of a The of (2) It is also a mastery placesbyvision. partition spacepermits panoptic in which looktransforms the intoobjects forces which can observe one practice strange and measure, in To a and them one'svision.2 see (from therefore controlling "including" willbe equallyto foresee, anticipate bythereading a space. to time of distance) to the to (3) It wouldbe legitimate define power knowing this of by capacity transform theuncertaintieshistory readable of into in exacttorecognize these spaces.Butitismore a one of and the "strategies" specific ofknowing, which type upholds determines power a itself proper or have been giving place. Moreover military scientific strategies always
exists whenit includes strategy theother." the of John Neumann OskarMorgenvon and 2"Strategy only Behavior stern, Theory Gamesand Economic of (NewYork,1964).
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of or cities,"neutral" by inaugurated the constitution "proper"fields(autonomous "disinterested" research In other laboratories, institutions, words, etc.) "independent" and of It or poweris theprecondition thisknowledge, notonlyitseffect itsattribute. It produces in the them itself. and governs characteristics. permits stir In contrast strategies to schema and (whosesuccessive figures thistoo formal with historical ofrationality alsoneed whoseconnection a particular would configuration I the which determined theabsence is action to be madeprecise) calltactics calculated by of furnishes a condition it of of a properplace. Thus no delimitation exteriority in with Tacticshas no place except that theother. of Also itmust the play autonomy. It force. doesnothavethemeans terrain on by imposed it,organized thelawofa strange in in of of of containing itself itself, a position retreat, anticipating,gathering of itself: it "in fieldof vision"as von Bilow said it, and in thespace is movement the enemy's the It a controlled him.3 does nothave,therefore, possibility giving of itself global by in and objectifiable. It the space,visible projectnorof totalizing adversary a distinct from depends and blowbyblow.It profits without base in a upon"occasions" operates to a sorties. Whatit whichto stocksupplies, augment proper space,and to anticipate doubtless but be amenabilpermits mobility, requires gainscannot held.Thisnon-space in that It of to offers. must ityto thehazards time, order seizethepossibilities a moment the combination circumstances inthe utilize gapswhich particular the of open vigilantly It there. creates It control theproprietary of It for power. poaches surprises. ispossible it it. no to be where one expects It is wile. it In sumitis an artoftheweak.Clausewitz noted with to respect wileinhistreatise On War.The morea powergrows, lessit can allowitself mobilize partof its the a to the of it meansin orderto produce effects deception: is in effect to dangerous employ when kind demonstration considerable forces appearances' for this is of sake,at a time vain the of renders direct action urgent so necessity generally andwhen seriousness bitter thatit does notmakeroomforthis his one game.One distributes forces, does notrisk in them pretending. On Poweris boundbyitsvisibility. theother ruseis possible hand, forthe weak and often "The weaker forces the which are onlyit,as a lastrecourse: the to will to it direction, more subjected strategic they be vulnerable wile."4I translatethus: intotactics. themoreit changes a as the also compares ruseto verbalwit:"Just a witticism Clausewitz performs ruse ideas so with sleight-of-hand preexisting andconceptions, alsothemilitary performs the This the ofin of a sleight-of-hand therealm action."5 suggest privileged inwhich way The art into order. introduces surprise its effects an established oftactics sleight-of-hand Its is a of on of gamesmanship, "scoring" your adversary, at one with senseoftiming. of in us techniques-andFreudgives a wholeinventory them hisbookon wit6-boldly of the the data in order transfigure normal to restructure initial space language a given the recipient. an alien flash, thereby with Cracks, glints,slippages, stupefying suchare thestyle these of the of within established brainstorms system: grids a given
movements beyond the fieldof vision of the enemy;tactics,that of 3"Strategyis the science of military movementswithinhis fieldof vision" (von Bulow). 4Karl von Clausewitz, De la Guerre(Paris, 1955), pp. 212-213.This analysiscan be foundin manyother fromMachiavelli on. theoreticians 5Ibid., p. 212. 6SigmundFreud, Jokesand TheirRelationto the Unconscious.
Practices Everyday
which theequivalent therealm action witandthewitticism are in of tactical of practices, in therealmof language. Bereft anyproper of as vision, blindand any space of itsown,without globalizing as intuitive one must be in immediate hand-to-hand combat,ruled by temporal as chanceand luck,tactics thus are determined theabsence power essentially by of fully muchas strategy organized poweras a precondition. thissense,thedialectic In is by to art As well by specific tactics might be illuminated theancient ofsophistry. thefounder in of of a great"strategic" was interested thetechniques this Aristotle greatly system, of of whosemission, he considered, in theperversion theorder as lay enemy, particular he Truth.Indeed,from protean, this and dextrous, unpredictable adversary, quotesa standas an admirable formulation thedynamics sophistry of of which henceforth can in definition tactics ourpresent of to sense:thepoint, Corax,is "to according thesophist of turntheweakest intothestrongest conclusion this one."7The paradoxical position of the of at in phraseat once reveals relationship forces work theprinciple intellectual as as whichis our present objectof study: stubborn it is subtle,tireless, creativity on the of remobilized all occasions, propagated throughout strongholds thedominant aliento therulesandmethods basedon the order,and utterly imposed a rationality by of rights self-identical space. on are actions which, (or Strategies therefore dependent a spaceofpower one'sown and are of theoretical spatial"property"), abletoproject systems types spaces(totalizing can of force distributed. is which articulate ensemble physical the discourse) placeswhere of and combine thesethree Strategies types space-power,theory, praxis-andaimat of combinations themwhichwill assuremastery; theythereby foreground spatial or to relations spatial to onesbyan analysis relations, at leastattempt reduce temporal which a element bya systemic and attributesproper organization placetoeachparticular ofthetypes movement of The of was characteristiceachtype unity. model strategy of of and a one it "science" knowledge. evidently military before was usedto organize stress on from their Tacticsare meanwhile whosespecific valuederives operations a transforms a into timeas such-on the circumstances which punctual intervention which change the situation conjuncture, therapidity movements or on of can favorable of moments a of between successive the veryorganization space, on the relations variousduriesor between tacticalmove, on the overlapor intersection particular between thesetwovery etc. rhythms, In thissense,thedifference unequal temporal distinct of is with historical to types practice one of twodistinct options respect action constraints than situational and security, which have evidently moreto do with options of with free choiceas such:strategies on which establishmenta the gamble theresistance faith in on to tactics thecontrary their put placeor locusoffers thewearandtearoftime; it a skillful utilization time, of as and of theopportunitiesoffers wellas theplayit can in into foundationspower. of Evenifthemethods introduce thevery employed this guerilla warfare everyday can never distinguishedquiteso clear-cut way,thefact of in life a be remains thatthey characterized spatial temporal are and by wagers respectively.
the Budd,1967, Rhetoric, chapter 1402a:"Maketheweaker II, 24, 7Aristotle, (edition argument stronger" 273 Vol. 2, p. 131). The same "discovery" attributed Tisiasby Plato(Phaedrus, b-c). See also W.K. to is in mentions On which Aristotle texne, Guthrie,The Sophists 1971),pp. 178-179. Cortax's (Cambridge, and with see connection the"placesof apparent enthymemes," C. Perelman L. Olbrechts-Tyteca, de Trait6 1970),pp. 607-609. (Brussels, I'argumentation
de Certeau
The tactics thepolemology theweakorpowerless nowbe illuminated a or of may by are of references. for or Relevant, example, thevarious variety theoretical "figures" in inventoried Freud hiswork wit on (and by by "tropes"analyzed rhetoric exhaustively of of and in hisstudies thereturn therepressed: verbal and muleconomy condensation, and and overdetermination displacement alliteration, tiplemeanings misunderstanding, in of content, between the etc.)."Thereis indeednothing astonishing suchhomologies rusesofpractice operations a rhetoric. of Rhetorical and successful or figures their play unsuccessful terrain is that movesout on a restricted which precisely of self-identity, of in or and namely, rule-governed syntax ofthe"literal" "proper" meaning justthat and defined its senseevokedabove: thatis, a lawful spaceofidentity exclusion against external other.Rhetoric offers possibility a manipulation language the of of dependent on theappropriate occasion aiming seduce, and to or the entrap, invert linguistic position of thereceiver.9 has of the use Thus,where grammar thefunction policing "proper" of drift, terms,rhetorical condensation, (metaphoric play and transformation elliptical the of in miniaturization, marks determinate appropriation language metonymic etc.) of or situations ritual actual combat. Suchrhetorical the linguistic procedures, indications and of consumption ofa playofforces, part a whole are of of problematics enunciation; are and thisis why, excluded from a (and perhaps because)they in principle although a scientific these"manners speaking" of offer wholerepertory of discourse, "properly" modelsand hypotheses a study analogous for of modesof action. thefinal In analysis, the semiotics tactics such, former only many of as are and inany so variants the of general latter.Obviously, elaboration sucha semiotics of wouldrequire rather a the different thanhasnecessarily that theresearch been which of bears name, emphasis presently that and which oriented around rationality proper the of it is In meaning. particular,would of arts and suchas thesixty-four imposethe study quitedifferent of thinking action, or of of theChineseI-Ching,'o themetis Greece," ("intelligence") ancient hexagrams 12 or of the Arabichila, or of anynumber other of forms "logic"nowaliento us. of to such I will not here be concerned construct an alternate but semiotics, rather to suggest certain a number waysin which maythink of we afresh daily the merely of consumers whentheyare of a tactical type.Dwelling, walking, spelling, practices of characteristics activities oftactical many the reading, cooking-such shopping, present tricks the"weak"within order of the rusesandsurprises: established the"strong," an by within realm theother, the of artofscoring hunters' maneuvers wisdom, polymorphous and inventions. and mobilities, jubilatory, poetic, military Suchactivities to has art survived the perhaps correspond a timeless which notmerely institutions successive of but orders reachesback well before our own sociopolitical histories finds and solidarities the of frontiers humanity. Indeed, strange beyond very suchpractices in curious present analogies-as though immemorial intelligence-with
"Freud, op. cit. 9See Stephen Toulmin, The Uses of Argument (Cambridge,1958); C. Perelmanand L. Olbrechts-Tyteca, Traitd,op. cit.; and J. Dubois, et al., Rh6torique g6n6rale(Paris, 1970). 'tSee the I-Ching (Chou-1), or Book of Changes,whose 64 hexagrams(formedby 6 brokenor fulllines) in of of representall possible configurations existents the course of the mutations the universe. " Marcel D'tienne and Jean-Pierre in Vernant,CunningIntelligence Greek Cultureand Society(Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities,1978). 12See M. Rodinson, Islam et le capitalisme (Paris, 1972).
Practices Everyday
the simulation, thatcertainfishor certainplantsexecutewith and tricks strikes, The procedures suchartcan thusbe found faras lifeitself of as virtuosity. prodigious as though transcended merely strategic not the of exists, they separations historical butalso thevery breakinaugurated theinstitutionconsciousness of itself. institutions by continuities the permanency a memory and of without They thusassurethe formal all from ocean's depths thewayto thestreets today's the of megalopolis. language, it the In anycase, on thescaleofcontemporary history, wouldseemthat generalizaa inthe of has tionand theexpansion technocratic rationalization produced proliferation, interstices thesystem, justsuchpractices of which wereformerly of controlled stable by those local unities.More and more,tactics swingout of theirorbits.Loosed from traditional their communities whichonce circumscribed functioning, beginto they and wanderthroughout space increasingly are a Consumers homogenized extended. The is transformed immigrants. system which in circulate too vastto localize into they a to them, too infinitely spreadout forthem be able to escapeit and to find place yet The Thereis no elsewhere. "strategic" modelthereby also transformed, is "elsewhere." from as thoughlost by its own success:it dependedon a "properplace" distinct the that else." else; by "everything It is conceivable little little everything itnowbecomes of modelmayexhaust ownpossibilities transformation cometo constiits and strategic over of tutethevery as society, given space(as totalitarian thecosmos old) ofcybernetic Thiswouldmeana tactics. movements innumerable invisible of and to the Brownian of within immense an and of gridwork manipulations proliferation random unpredictable and socio-economic of constraints movements, myriads quasi-invisible precautions: to and texture a homogeneous continuous of across everfiner the space"proper" playing of Is or the the everyone. thisalready present still future ourbigcities? of of as asidethemultimillenary archeology ruses, wellas thepossibility their Leaving tactics of must never the nonetheless future, present study everyday anthill-swarming the from which comenor,at theother the extreme, horizon may they they forget horizon will someofthe of horizons at leastallowus toresist reach.The evocation these someday of but and less happyeffects thefundamental often one-sided obsessive contemporary of as and of analysis theinstitutions themechanisms repression such.Thattheprobleis a research no shouldplayso predominantrolein contemporary maticof repression themselves ofthevery are institutions indeed scientific research and part greatsurprise: conforms the well-known to genreof the family system theyanalyze;theiranalysis the in to simply anything itsoperation, critique failing change (a ideology history critical Suchinstitutions it a to of within genus which belongs the itself). creating illusion distance are whose stories toldin or of devils werewolves charm those tendto add thedisquieting of of Yet theevening thehearth. thiselucidation theapparatus repression itself by by which able a not defect, heterogeneous practices namely being toseethose presents signal this chance surviving particular of haveevery to Yet itbelieves itself haverepressed. they a are and in anycase they also themselves partof sociallife,all themore apparatus, to and in resistant their Surveying changes. very suppleness capacity adjustto perpetual
of the of one has the impression exploring nighttime this fleeting permanent reality, yet are in societies,a night days,a dimsurface whichsuccessiveinstitutions longerthantheir and politicalapparain maritime immensity whichsocio-economic profiled,a virtually tuses come to seem ephemeralinsularities. researchis not insignificant, even where it The imaginary landscape of a particular
10
de Certeau
lacksrigor. restores It whatusedto be called"popular culture" what onlyto transform used to seema matrix-forcehistory a mobile of thus into of infinity tactics, maintaining the structure a social"imaginary" of whosefundamental take questions constantly on new shapesand ariseanew.By thesametoken, forestalls effects an analysis it the of whichcan necessarily of technical onlyin function a particular graspsuchpractices as with ofor instruments. the Here apparatus, thetransformation interference thelatter's is to with of The which analysis itself marginal respect itsownobjects study. landscape in modethushas thefunction a globaland of stagesthesephenomena theimaginary a defense their reduction lateral It rectification, against by therepeutic inspection. thus their ensures if as Thisreturn another to continuing presence, only ghosts. stage thereby recalls relationship the between experience such the of and an can practices what analysis tell about them:it is the witness-a fantasmatic at best,non-scientific-of one the between and elucidation. Whatcan be written disproportion dailytactics their strategic aboutwhateverybody the does? Between twothings, image, the of but ghost an expert silent the body,preserves difference.
III. MICHEL FOUCAULT, OR, TECHNOLOGIES IN DISSEMINATION
We must with problem therelationship someprocedures discourse. the of of to begin For theseprocedures nothavethefixed repetitive do and structure rituals, of or customs, of which longer tobe articulateddiscourse have no have in or not types instinctive knowledge their The kind procedure of of to of yetfound expression. mobility this adapts a variety or but on elucidation. Their from objectives effects, does notdepend verbal separation In tactics within discourse as we have mustnotbe overestimated. fact, discourse can, withnonverbal seen above, be correlated tactical acts. Indeed,the implicit thought invested thesekinds action in of constitutespeculiar-andmassive-instance the a of and between relationship practices theory. In Discipline the a he of and Punish, workin which examines organization penal, of at Michel academic,and medical"surveillance" the beginning the 19thcentury, an to Foucaultattempts approximate impossible of nounthroughproliferation a proper and poetic evocations:"apparatus,""instrumentations," synonyms "techniques," and and "machineries," so on.13 Thisvery "mechanisms," uncertainty terminological is instability already suggestive.Yet the basic storythe book has to tellor thatof an enormous deal-postulatesa fundamental quidproquo socio-historical and and between their evolutions and respective dichotomy ideologies procedures, charts is intersections. fact, how In whatFoucault analyzes a chiasmus: theplaceoccupied by at is humanitarian reformist "colonized" or and century then projects theendofthe18th which havesinceincreasingly "vampirized" thosedisciplinary by procedures organized thesocialrealm itself. mystery ofa substitutioncorpses This of would havepleased story Freud. for the is out two whoserelationAs always Foucault, drama played between forces is On is by ship to one another inverted theruseof history. theone hand,there the
withits revolutionary ideology of the Enlightenment, approach to the matterof penal
"3Michel Foucault, Surveilleret punir (Paris, 1975); on Foucault's earlier work, see M. de Certeau, L'Absent de I'histoire (Paris, 1974), pp. 115-132.
Practices Everyday
11
of aim at with the justice.The reformist projects the18th century essentially doing away of withthatbloodyritualization hand-to-hand "ordeal" of theancienregime, combat to intended dramatize symbolic the of over criminals; triumph royalty theappropriate such projects involved equalization penalities, the of their to gradation according the and their educational valuebothforthecriminals for and society itself. crime, In actual fact,however, evolvedin the army and in the disciplinary procedures schoolsrapidly cometo prevail overthevastandcomplex elaborated judicial apparatus are and and by the 18thcentury Enlightenment, the new techniques refined applied without to recourse anyovert the of for ideology: development a cellular (whether grid or intoan students, workers, soldiers, criminals, sickpeople) transforms space itself instrument which be usedto discipline, program, to keepunder can to and observation of the and to any social group.In suchprocedures, refinement technology attention in over of minute detailtriumph theory, result theuniversalizationa single, and uniform undermines revolutionary the of itself-which institutionstheEnpunishment-prison and from substitutes penitentiary penaljustice. the for lightenment within everywhere Foucaultthusdistinguishes between twoheterogeneous He the systems. describes won of of system superiority by a political technology the bodyoveran elaborated doctrine. he does notstophere:inhisdescription theinstitution triumphant and Yet of of "minor to particular instrumentality"-the grid-he also tries penal proliferation this determine scope of suchan opaque power, which theproperty no individual of the is is has and which neither locus,no superiors no inferiors, subject,which no privileged nor in and is repressive dogmatic its action,and whoseefficacity quasi-autonomous its functions to and spatially individuate classify, analyze, through capacity distribute, and continues produce to merewords ideasas ideology anygivenobject.(Meanwhile, a Foucault usual!) Through seriesof clinical-andsplendidly "panoptical"-tableaux, then in his turnattempts name and to classify "methodological the to rules,"the and "functional the the conditions," "techniques" the"processes," distinct "operations" like which and "mechanisms," and would constitute something "principles" "elements" a "microphysicspower."'4 Thisexhibit hasa dualfunction: diagram particular of to a thus stratum nonverbal of and also to found discourse a aboutthosepractices. practices How are suchpractices be described? a characteristic In to of strategy indirection, Foucaultisolates gesture the which discursive and space-not, as inMadness organizes the and of an in Civilization, epistemological socialgesture confining outcast orderto createthespace of reasonitself-but a rather minute gesture, everywhere reproduced, in visible to its to and bywhich spaceis partitioned order subject inhabitants surveillance The procedures which and this then turn report. repeat, amplify, perfect gesture intheir whichtakesthe form the so-called of "humansciences"or organizethatdiscourse We havethereby a which identifiednonverbal Geisteswissenschaften. gesture-agesture has been privileged, historical socialreasons and to and for which remain be described, thenis articulated which the of science. through discourse contemporary the it also Alongside novelperspectives opened bythis up analysis'5--andmight have
'4See Foucault, op. cit., pp. 28, 96-102,106-116,143-151,159-161,185, 189-194, 211-217,238-251,274-275, a 276, etc.: a series of theoretical"tableaux" punctuatesthe book and profiles historical object forwhichit inventsan adequate discourse. '-See in particular Gilles Deleuze, "Ecrivain,non: un nouveaucartographe," Critique, 343 (December in no. 1975), pp. 1207-1227.
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a for the intoa wholestylistics,wholemethod analyzing nonverbal been prolonged to itself-several kinesics and rhythms the textof thought of questions relating our be raised: may present project sinceThe of sciences-Foucault's explicit (1) In his archeology thehuman project of "matrix"-the"technology Orderof Things-and in his searchforthatcommon to boththepenalcode-the punishment of could be found organize power"-which of is human thehuman sciences-theknowledge human beings-Foucault beings-and of which form the led to makea selective choicefrom thetotality procedures among centuries. begins with single a fabric socialactivity the18th of in and 19th He prolifera of a or and technology, then, throughkind ating system, essentiallyscientific juridical from social as a whole, isolates cancerous the thereby body surgical growth the operation, its in centuries. dynamic wayofits by genesis thetwo preceding explaining contemporary massof historiographic materials academic, (penal,military, Drawingon an immense the whichcan medical), thismethoddisengages opticaland panoptical procedures within thereby identify at first the to to be it, disguised increasingly found proliferate becomes moreprecise, and of whosestructure indices an apparatus complex, gradually within density thesocialfabric a whole. the of as determinate at raises distinct two Thisremarkable questions one and historiographic "operation" the same time:on the one hand,the decisive role of technological and procedures in of on the development apparatuses theorganization a society; theother, exceptional or privileged statusof one particular We category amongsuch apparatuses. must now therefore ask: the of constituted series (a) How do we explain privileged development that particular byFoucault's apparatuses? panoptical in of which their to (b) Whathappened all thoseother types seriesor procedures to to discursive orto unremarked itineraries failed giverise either a specific configuration a technological well reserve They systematization? might be lookedon as an immense which of never tookplace. the containing seedsor thetraces alternate developments It is in anycase impossible reduce functioninga wholesociety a single, to the of to dominant Recentstudies of on (suchas that SergeMoscovici urban typeofprocedure. or on haverevealed organization,'6 Pierre Legendre themedieval juridical apparatus'") otherkindsof technological whichknowan analogousinterplay with apparatuses, back into the storehouse social of ideologyand prevailfor a time,beforefalling as at other them their in function of procedures a whole, which apparatuses point replace a "informing"wholesystem. On this view, then,a societywould be composedby certain which, practices withdrawn externalized, organize normative and now its institutions, selectively alongside innumerable otherpractices remained do which, "minor," not organize having discourse but itself merely the or of persist, preserving premises theremnants institutional scientific or that from It differ onesociety another. isthen to within the hypotheses latter-a multitudinous silent and of "reserve" procedures-that practices conthe of shouldbe sought, which thatdoublecharacteristic undersumption practices present scoredby Foucaultof beingable to organize bothspace and language dominant in or subordinate ways.
humainede la nature(Paris, 1968). '6Serge Moscovici, Essai sur I'histoire '7Pierre Legendre, L'Amour du censeur.Essai sur l'ordredogmatique(Paris, 1974).
Practices Everyday
13
or instance wholecontemporary the formation "full"form-inthis (2) It is thefinal and of surveillance discipline-which serves thepointof departure as for technology But theimpressive coherence hisfindingsthereby of is Foucault's archeology: explained. that procedures assume all themselves this had coherence? priori, The A no. can we really andevencancerous ofpanoptical would seemto be development procedures exceptional and from historic as a weapon role practices against heterogeneous indistinguishable their a means of controlling latter. the coherence the effect a particular of their is Thus, the historic and nota characteristicall technological of Thus,behind success, practices. of thedominant we might theexistence "monotheism" suspect procedures, panoptical and survival a "polytheism" concealed disseminated of but of or practices, marginalized notobliterated thehistorical ofone oftheir number. by triumph whenit has becometheorganizing of (3) Whatis thestatus a particular apparatus thathas of a technology power?Whatis theeffect of uponit of theprocess principle it from rest, the and transformed it intoa dominant? isolated externalized, privileged, withthe dispersed ensemble other of What new kind of relation does it maintain and it has at length their ownpenitentiary when been institutionalized as procedures inthis an apparatus couldlose scientific It fashion well privileged system? might be that owed its own muteand that efficacity to which,according Foucault,it originally On from obscure that stratum where Foucault minuscule technical advances. emerging in well of it itself theposition locatesthedetermining mechanisms society, might find of an institution imperceptibly itself colonized other, more still silent Indeed, by procedures. it willbe one of thehypothesis thepresent of and of essaythatthissystem discipline whichwas formed the 19thcentury the basis of procedures in on that surveillance in of oneswhich remain it, by other vampirized still preexisted is today theprocess being to be described. fact the of further?notthevery that, they Is as evolve, apparatuses (4) Can we go still have themselves and surveillance becometheobjectof elucidation, a partof thevery a rationality, sign thattheyhave ceased to determine languageof Enlightenment as an institutions? Insofar itis itself effect discursive by produced underlying organizing fill role discourse would tend betray to those which longer that byitsown no apparatuses, the articulation them.At thatpoint-unlesswe are to supposethat,by analyzing of it from which is itself and surmounts ownbasic its derived, Discipline Punish practices and "procedures"-we wouldhaveto ask what distinction between appa"ideologies" in ratus an which articulates discourse turn, apparatus this must definition by escapethe latter's detection. answers be found can Suchquestions-for which at only provisional here-may least serveto measurethe extent thechanges has of of Foucault brought thestudy the to in of he life, By practices everyday as wellas thenewperspectives hasopened. showing, a and and relations between case, theheterogeneous equivocal apparatuses ideolosingle a that gies,he has constitutednewobjectofhistorical study: zoneinwhich technological havespecific which specific are to effects power, of obeylogical dynamisms procedures
in institutuions. modifications thejuridicaland scientific them,and produce fundamental which But we do not yet know what to make of other,equally infinitesimal procedures of remained unprivileged history and whichyetcontinueto flourish the interstices in by whichlack the institutional the This is mostparticularly case of procedures technologies. the essential precondition indicatedby Foucault, namely,the possessionof a locus or
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own the can Such spaceoftheir on which panoptical machinery function. equally specific arevery those "tactics" yet seemingly powerless techniques precisely operative, initially discussed I that formal cluesas to thenature above,ofwhich willsuggest they provide of everyday consumer in practices general.
IV. PIERRE BOURDIEU, OR, "KNOWING IGNORANCE"
Yet itwouldseemthat such"tactics" onlybe analyzed wayofa longdetour can by another or 19th in France, Foucault; society: pre-revolutionary century through Kabylia or B6arninthework Pierre of inthat Marcel ancient of Detienne and Bourdieu; Greece, Jean-Pierre etc. of Vernant, It is as though, marginalized thedevelopment occidental by tactics need to return from another scenein order takeon thenecessary to rationality, andarticulation. other Thus lands restore uswhat ownculture seenfit to our has visibility to excludefrom owndiscourse. are notthesetactics its But defined from the precisely outsetas whatwe ourselves haverepressed lost?As in Levi-Strauss' or Tristes Tropiafarto discover in thosevery ques,18 we musttravel things unrecognizable our own midst. For Kabyliato constitute kindof Trojan Horse of a "theory practice" a of for forthethree admirable texts dedicated thisregion standas a multiple to to Bourdieu; to for to statement; thesethree preface a lengthy epistemological ethnological chapters intoa theory which their prose is own and as lead, likepoems, commentary toserve the latter's and referential basis;fortheir fascinating infinitely quotableand reexaminable and poeticplace to vanish from final the its title, and,disseminated through discursive to like the still effects, be slowly effaced, a sunfrom speculative landscape litbyit:such features a 9 of within already suggest specific positioning practice theory. This is of courseno accident: which since1972is indeed,all of Bourdieu's work, devoted to "practical organized along the same meaning."20is withone exception With one variation:his workon matrimonial and strategies genealogical lines.-2' substitutes reference B6arnforthat the to of Kabylia.22 referential Two loci economy rather thanone: can we decidewhich themeredoubleof theother? is Bothproject ordered"familiarities" which nonetheless are the haunted, one byexile,theother by cultural difference. itwould seemthat homeland, the as or Still, B6arn, in-fans speechless
Tristes a 'IClaude LUvi-Strauss, (Paris, 1958); see especiallythepages on the"return," meditation tropiques on travelwhichis transmuted of intoan investigation memory. "'Pierre Bourdieu, Esquisse d'une theuorie la pratique(Geneva, 1972). The titleof the book is thatof the de are second, or theoretical, part. On Bourdieu, unlikeFoucault,French-language critiques notverynumerous: is thisthe simultaneouseffect the fearand admiration of generatedby a Bdarnaisempire?The "ideological" characterof Bourdieu's positionis objected to by R. Boudon (in L 'Inegalite chancesor in Effets des et pervers ordre social). In a Marxistperspective:Baudelot & Establet (L'Ecole capitliste France); Jacques Bidet en ("Questions 'a P. Bourdieu," in Dialectiquesno. 2); L. Pinto("La Th6oriede la pratique,"in La Penske, April et in 1975), etc. Froman epistemological pointofview,see L. Marin,"Champsth6orique pratique symbolique," Critique no. 321 (February 1974). W. Paul Vogt presents Bourdieu's theses in "The Inheritanceand Reproductionof CulturalCapital," in The Reviewof Education(Summer 1978), pp. 219-228. matrimonials dans le systemede reproduction," Annales E.S.C. (Julyin "P. Bourdieu, "Les strat6gies October 1972), pp. 1105-1127;"Le langageautorisd,"in Actesde la recherche sciences en sociales (November, 1975), no. 5-6, pp. 183-190;"Le sens pratique," ibid., Feb. 1976, no. 1, pp. 43-86. 2 "Avenir de classe et causalit6du probable," Revuefrancaisede sociologie,XV, 1974, pp. 3-42. 22"Les strategies matrimoniales," cit. op.
Practices Everyday
15
which as any origin, neededthereduplication theKabylescene(forBourdieu, of so can Onlybywayof thisobjectification a real analogous)to finditsown articulation. one: les foundation also an imaginary "otisont Bearnais be (but d'antan?") madewithin thehuman sciences theconcept thehabitus, of which constitutes Bourdieu's for personal mark theory. specificitytheoriginal on The of is effaced behind power its experience then to organize moregeneralizing a discourse. The Dividedintwosections enables other), Outline a Theory the of (eachofwhich of is a It thus a Practice first foremostpractice interdisciplinarity. projects metaphor, and of as from to insofar itoffers passagefrom genre another, the one to ethnology sociology. Is to Yet things notquiteso simple this, thebookis hard classify. itmeant be to are as and in workin thekindofinterdisciplinary confrontation formerly by sponsored Bourdieu,23 the presuppositions whicheach discipline seeks to analyzeand to renderexplicit to Such confrontations soughta mutualepistemological belonging each specialty? in of and their foundations thatbroaddaylight to elucidation, strove display implicit consciousness which boththeambition themyth science is and of itself. Here,perhaps, rather seems to thestakes somewhat are and different, theOutline a Theory Practice of of the backtoward darkwhen turns it this which discipline a gains interrogate newinsight because but to ness thatsurrounds it-not in orderto putthatdarkness flight, rather it is constitutive ineradicable.Theorywould thencome intobeingwhenever and or withcorrecting own rulesof production determining its a science,not content its of starts to its own limits validity, exteriority. thinking relationship thisinevitable Whetheror not this is the directionof Bourdieu's current discourse,it is in that themselves the of in opaquereality practices boundaries the anycasebeyond disciplinary theoretical question appears. studied Bourdieu the involve such calledbyhim"strategies," practices by Explicitly as of in of of layout theinterior the things thesystems inheritance Bearn,thephysical and of and Theseare year, so forth. Kabylehouse,therhythms organization theKayble buta fewgenuses a species which includes "strategies" fecundity, the of of inheritance, social or economic etc., as well as those education, investment, marriage, hygiene, of between and whicharise during strategies "reconversion" practices discrepancies of of In allow differences someoftheproperties a "logic situations.24 eachcase,concrete to practice" be specified. and the tablesor "family trees," surveys geometric (1) Genealogical mapsofhabits, linearcycles calendars all totalizing homogeneous of and are effects the of productions, in to themselves observer's distanceand "neutralization," comparison the strategies whichform blocks"either kinship the relations into"city becauseof actually practiced moveor and are usefulness, theplaceswhich distinguished theinverse successive by ments thebody, thedurations actions of or of own at accomplished bystep their pace step with Where synoptic and at ratesincommensurate eachother.25 the an map,essentially of instrument summation a mastery vision, and levelsand classesall thecollected by nuclei discontinuities, ofheterogeneous operations. organizes Kinship, "given,"practice
J.-C.Passeron J.-C.Chamboredon, Le Metier and is in de 23This theconfrontation byP. Bourdieu, urged (Paris,1968),pp. 112-113. sociologue "Les strategies "Le matrimoniales," cit., 1107-1108; sens op. pp. 25Esquisse, cit.,pp. 211-227; op. pratique," op. cit.,pp. 51-52;etc.
24See "Avenir de classe .. .," pp. 22, 33-34,42, etc.
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not space, and timeare therefore thesameon theone handand on theother. is at of these (I wouldadd thatthisdifferencesituated thefrontier tworuses.With the hidestheoperation retreat power of and which madethem tables, scientist synthetic the the side,whilefurnishing "given"solicited theinvestigators, possible.On their by concealthepractical difference created between them the practitioners necessarily by whichuse them(or not), and theythuscollaborate the production in of operations hidetheir tactics from observer. knowledge practices the The of generaltableswhich wouldbe theresult thisdoubledeception.) of distinction marks boundary the between distinct two of (I wouldadd thatthis types ruse.The synthesizing tablesand graphs thescientist of maskthedistantiation the and which in made them the of mastery possible thefirst place. Meanwhile, subjects such the datathey studies, ethnic themselves, thevery furnish, overin "practitioners" by pass silence the role of actual practice differentiating in between such data: theythus and themselves in tableaux schemata order hide in collaborate theproduction global of to their owntactics from observer question. the in aboutpractices wouldthen Knowledge be a combined result thesetwin of deceptions.) in sense(marrying ofyour one for is children, example) the (2) "Strategy" Bourdieu's a in of and on of equivalent "taking trick a cardgame," depends preeminentlythequality thegame,as a result thecardsyouare dealtandthewayyouplaythem.26 actof of The a thusdepends thepostulates on which determine "play-field," the the on taking trick ruleswhich confer a given on handitsmeaning assign theplayer certain and to a number of possible and on that skill with a plays, particular inmaneuver which first-class player will increasehis capitalduring game. This complex the structure however, be can, resolved intovarious distinct functions: qualitatively number implicit of in the of (a) Therearea certain (thus, Bearn, superiority principles husbands wives, elders youths-principles ensure protect to or to which and in patrimony an economy are poor in cash flow);yetthefactthatsuchprinciples neverexplicitly and defined of of one off opens up margins tolerance thepossibility playing principle the against other. rules (for instance, adot: "compensation younger the to (b) There are explicit for brothers their renunciation theinheritance"), these accompanied limits of but are by which reverse them in thetournadot, which theadotto be returned the in (as requires eventof childless of therefore take marriages). Everyimplementationsuchrulesmust intoaccount omnipresent this of which linked circumstances. is to possibility reversal tricks strategems and must meanwhile, "navi(c) "Strategies," ("l'agirestretors"), all and offered thetraditions question," in gate" theserules, "exploit thepossibilities by this thanthat, that this choosing one rather compensating one with one,etc. The soft of to allowsthem structure a given network to appearance a rigid reality according their ownpriorities. Moreimportantly, shift one to strategies andslipfrom function another, divisions between economic, social,andthesymbolic. the the short-circuiting Thus,for a lackofchildren will for instance, (biological fecundity) compensate a bad marriage (a bad choicein terms money station), of or while retention an unmarried the of younger brother homeas unpaid at domestic labor(economic investmentwellas restriction as of the of him biological fecundity) presents addedadvantage avoiding paying theadot(institu26"Lesstrategies matrimoniales," cit.,p. 1109;etc. op.
EverydayPractices
17
tional benefit). Strategies do not simply "apply" preexistingrules and principles; of they select the repertory theirown operations fromout of the latter.27 one genrcto another,suchpractices can be assimilated the to from (3) As theyshift and one Freudian conceptof "transference" to the rhetorical of "metaphorization," and thus imply a specific "logic" of their own. Bourdieu exercizes his own "ruse" in order to outsmart the labyrinthine developments of these ruses of practice and to underscorethe following essentialprocedures:28 or the (a) polythetism multifunctionality: same thinghas different applicationsand combination; propertieswhichvaryaccordingto its positionin a particular one (b) substitutability:. thingcan always be replaced by another,giventhe kinship it withall the othertermsin the particular totality represents; the it to (c) euphemization: is important conceal the factthatactiontendsto disrupt dichotomiesand antinomiesrepresented any given symbolicsystem.The union of by contrariesin ritualmay serve as the model forsuch euphemization. of order(but all Ultimately, such procedures, essentially transgressions the symbolic whichapparently the linguiscamouflagedtransgressions, metaphors respect established in tic distinctions the veryact of violating them),maybe summedup underthe primacy the of of analogy. From thisstandpoint, oppositeof recognizing authority rulesis thevery them-a fundamental chiasmuswhichwould have to be reversedin contempapplying we orarysocietyin thesense in whichwe applylawswhoseauthority no longerrecognize. of all such practicesis to be In any case, Bourdieu suggeststhatthe ultimate principle such as Duhem, Bachelard, and found in that very"analogical mode" whichscientists saw at the verysource of theoretical Campbell, innovation.2' are (4) These practices all governedin thelastanalysis whatI have called above the by economyof theproperlocus. In Bourdieu's work,thiseconomytendsto be represented in two distinct and equally fundamental, unthematized but ways:on theone hand,as the maximizationof capital (materialand symbolic a whichconstitutes givenpatrigoods) mony; and on the other, as the developmentof the body itself,both individualand and of space (throughits collective, the producer of time (throughits fecundity) All subsequentruses,and theirsuccessor failure, to be tracedback are displacements). to an economywhichseeks to reproduceand to augment thesedual yetcomplementary formsof the Kabyle "house"3" itself:goods and bodies, land and lineage. A politicsof "locus" thusunderliessuch strategies. Whence two featureswhichso strongly connectthose practiceswiththe "enclosed or place" whereBourdieu consideredthem(theBearn family theKabyle house) and with the typeof observationto whichhe submits them: (a) He always presupposes the twin link of all practiceswith a particularplace or (the (patrimony)and a particular typeof collectiveadministration family thegroup). But suppose one or the otherof thesepreconditions missing? This is significantly is the technocratic withwhich case, forexample, withcontemporary societies,by comparison the proprietary and familialenclaves of yesteryear of other cultureshave become or
27See"Les strat6gies matrimoniales," cit. op. "Les 2"Seein particular senspratique," cit.,esp. pp. 54-75. op.
30As is wellknown, "house," traditional the in both societies, designates thedwelling (goods)andthe family itself genealogical (the body).
de 29Le m6tier sociologue, op. cit., pp. 290-299.
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veritable let comes Yet utopiasor lostworlds, alone robinsonnades. whenBourdieu or within contemporary bourgeoisie, among a today's upon thesesame practices petty he themas "short-term near-sighted and as housewives, treats strategies," "anarchic of which collection half-baked reactions" reveala "disparate ideas,"a "cultural sabir," "a hodge-podge decontextualized of notions."3' thesamefundamental is at Yet logic of workinboththese and or contemporary practices those Kabylia B6arn:thedifference the ones of which their is that contemporary nowoperate independent thelocus governed in societies. Whatbecomes use in traditional of of problematical theOutline a Theory it is not of Practice thus thenotion practice which adumbrates rather ofspaceor but that it place which presupposes. is with use oftheterm the (b) Yet there a similar by "strategy" Bourdieu. problem The term justified theidea that is constitute many so to by practices responses particular At Bourdieuinsists thattheseare not really conjunctures. the same time,however, at senseof theword:there be can,forexample, no choice strategies all in thestricter no there be no readjustcan intention"); (and amongvarious possibilities thus "strategic menton the basis of improved information thusno genuineassessment and (and calculation such);there be no forecast future as can of but configurations onlya world a of "it stable, cyclical subjects repetition thepast).In short, is becausethese presumed that know are do of do notstrictly what they doing, what they hasthepossibility speaking are characterization ofsuch morethan Hence,Bourdieu's they abletoknow.""32 meaning a that itself. as ignorance,"33craftiness does notknow practices "knowing Withsuch"strategies"-governed their locus, unconsciously intelligentspecific by the mosttraditional form ethnology of For the latter, tendsto makeits comeback. and werecharacterized ethnic as units coherent both indeed,itsinsular objectsofstudy two which in factinseparable. order coherence be are In for to unconscious, features of and as knowledge of its epistemological postulated, the precondition a scientific the in and model,suchknowledge must posited a distance be at from society postion The unconsciousnessthegroup of to under was study thevery price be paidfor question. itscoherence priceitwas then madeto pay). Society able to be constituted a was as (a of the that thus corollary, the onlyifit was unaware itself: justifying inevitable system was it. was to out sucha society without knowing ethnologist neededin order find what or makesuchclaims eventhink them: howis itthen wouldscarcely Today,ethnologists which is possibleforBourdieuto do just thatin the name of thatotherdiscipline sociology? on structures" thebasisof the "objective Sociology-to thedegreethatit defines derivedfromempirical furnished statistics (whichare themselves by "regularities" or state" of and as "situation" "objective research) seesevery conjuncture" a "particular for of to seek one ofthese structures34-must toaccount theadaptation a practice a given or How it the between structure itsdiscrepancy. is itthat is generally harmony practices into which materialized "particular and structures latter configurations") tends being (the
3 "Avenir de classe op. cit., pp. 11-12. Bourdieu in any case fails to take into account studiesof in ....," individualconsumers'strategies our own societies.See forexample (on A.O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty[Cambridge, 19701) the above article,p. 8, note 11. 32Esquisse, pp. 175-177and 182; "Avenir de classe ...," pp. 28-29; etc. 33Esquisse, p. 202. 34Esquisse, pp. 177-179.
EverydayPractices
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In to be observed and confirmed? general, the replyto thisquestion will posit some in mechanism thepractices or reflex instinctive or someobjective skill or themselves, attribute Bourdieurightly to bothsuchoptions, substitutes and his rejects practitioners. ingenuity their the for of to to the own "theory" them, seeking explain adaptations practice structure through former's genesis. It mightof course be suggestedthatthe termsof the problemhave been stackedin advance. Of the threeelementsin question-structures, and situations, practices-only the last two (whichcorrespond one another)have been empirically to observed,whilethe afterwards thebasisofstatistics. on Even before is modelconstructed the first a hypothetical thereare twopreliminary matterof "theory"can be engaged,therefore, epistemological in questions to be addressed: (a) as to the alleged "objectivity"of the "structures" question, an objectivityperpetuatedmainly by the convictionthat the sociologist's discourse is the discourse of the real; and (b) as to the limitsof the practicesand when situationsunderobservation,and in particular theirstatistical of representations, thatstructural modelsare supposedto explain.These compared withthe global systems as problems are, however,leftunexaminedin the haste to construct theory such. Under thesecircumstances, willadjustpractice then,Bourdieuneeds a conceptwhich to structure the same timethatit can accountfordiscrepancies at betweenthe two. He needs a supplementary or and discovers appropriately rubric term, it, enough,in thevery of process whichis at the heartof his specializationas a sociologist education,namely, mediationbetweenthe acquisition as such. Acquisitionproves to supplythe necessary structures which organize it in the first place and the various "dispositions"it can be of supposed to produce. This "genesis" implies an internalization structures through of acquisition, and a subsequentexternalization what has been thusacquired (the socalled habitus) in daily practice.A temporaldimensionis thereby introduced into the (expressingwhat has been "acquired") correspondadequately to problem: practices if a situations(manifesting givenstructure) and onlyif,duringthisprocessof internalin the ization/externalization, structure question has remainedstable; if it has not, an to or of inevitablediscrepancy misalignment practiceswill resultfromtheirfidelity the and older state of the structure the momentof its internalization, its transformation at into the habitus. On such a view,structures changeand thusbecome a principle social mobility, can of perhaps indeed the onlysuch principle.For what is acquiredcannotchangeand has no of the movementof itsown, beingthemerelocus oftheinscription structure, marbleinto which theirhistory carved. Nothinghappens in the area of acquisitionwhichis not is as somehow the result of some previous exteriority: in traditionalconceptionsof movesthere, and thereis no history save what and/or peasant societies,nothing primitive thatthe of its externalforcesintroduce.The immobility thismemory guarantees theory in will continueto be faithfully socioeconomic system reproduced the variouspractices. In the long run,then,it is not acquisitionor apprenticeship (visiblephenomena)which play the central role in Bourdieu's system,but ratherwhat has been acquired, the And thelatteris thereto serveas theunderpinning an explanation society of of habitus.35
35The concept and the termexis (habitus) derive fromMarcel Mauss (Sociologie et anthropologie [Paris, textswhichBourdieu quotes, Panofsky had underscored the 1966], pp. 368-369); meanwhile,in well-known theoreticaland practicalimportance thehabitusin medievalsociety(see M6tier sociologue,pp. 287-289). of de In Bourdieu's own work,the idea is an old one: see Le Metierde sociologue(pp. 11, 52, etc.) on sociological
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Yet is to in terms itsstructures. there a heavyprice payforsucha "solution," of most in in thefactthatthehypothetical or support question, habitus, the base must notably and unverifiable invisible. remain the of are Whatinterests Bourdieuis thegenesis practices, modesbywhich they on for of butrather the Foucault, account whatthey Not,as with produce, generated. whichexamined studies such sake of what producesthem.From the ethnological has thatelaborates theory practice, a of there thusbeen a to the sociology practices towards habitus, the whose of fundamental (exis, synonyms ethos, displacement discourse and "secondnature"),definitions, justifications modus operandi,"common sense," and narrative changed, a passive, has The particular beginto proliferate.36 heroofthis for the habitus, been substituted thecunning has of nocturnal actor, multiplicity the of as totheir basicagent, observable the earlier Henceforth, phenomena a "strategies."'37 an to indeed essential since"he" willbe attributed theformer: character, givensociety we within theory-from "structures" moveto movement the enablesa kindofcircular which in italics), and thence "strategies" to to "conjuncthe habitus readjust (always to reassimilated theoriginal whoseeffects deterand "structures," tures,"themselves are. states minate they a to In reality, this however, circle ("structure") a hypothetical passesfrom construct of and from there an interpretationempirically to observed facts (thehabitus), reality What than heterogeneous of the status and conjunctures). is evenmore striking (strategies in is to thesevarious elements thetheory theroleitassigns theethnological "fragments," to up or which supposed fill theholes.The Other-whether are Kabyle Bearnais-thus that workand helpsit "to explain ingredient makesthe theory suppliesthe missing outsider all thefeatures which thisdistant the defined Indeed, presents everything." and itself: absenceofself-consciousness, territoriality habitus coherence, (the stability, the equivalent of patrimony). acquired knowledge, habit, etc., constituting the or "other" native represented the is Bourdieu's Thus,within by theory, ethnological thestructures inverare as intheKabyle habitus that invisible house, itself, spacewhere, time itexis a as and that then invertedsecond are tedas they internalized, where "text" looklikefree The in which itself theform practices of ternalizes improvisations. merely ofBourdieu's brilliant most thus object ethnological Kabylehouse--the analysis--is lodged as and within concealed beneath the memory, theory itssilent "ultimately determining" the habitusand conferring the latterhypothesis on like a of something metaphor or referential and Yet verification a tangible reality density. itsvery metaphorization by turns "reference" themerest this into houselends and verisimilitude, theKabyle theory In in its is habitus form alone,and notitscontent. anycase,Bourdieu moreinterested of for than thenecessity usefulness sucha hypothesis theory indemonstratand showing a if Habitus becomes placeofdogma, bythat term understand we thereby ingitsreality. in order maketotalizing of which to theaffirmation a certain discourse "real" requires the claims.It doubtless shareswithmostdogmas heuristic function displacing of and linesofresearch. renewing
"schemata," or L'Amour de l'art(Paris, 1969,p. 163) on "taste." This notionis in hisworktodaysurrounded scholastic terms and axioms,interesting of of of withan impressive battery properly symptoms a possiblereturn medieval order withincontemporary technocracy. 36See Esquisse, pp. 175, 178-179;"Avenir de classe ...," pp. 28-29; etc. now studythe 37See the celebrationof the hero, in "Avenir de classe ...," pp. 28ff.We may therefore "strategiesof the habitus" (ibid., p. 30, italicsmine).
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of These texts Bourdieu their use content fascinate their to and theoretical analytic to content polemicize. I readthem, feeltheholdofa passion As I that they exasperate it. whilearousing Theyaremadeofcontrasts. thescrupulous examination practices of By and of their thatdoubtless no equibvalent has sinceMauss-they logic-witha rigor the a subsume latter under mystical function is to it habitus-whose reality-the finally of themechanism their Subtle ofB&arnais Kabyle or reproduction. descriptions provide tacticssuddenly as suchlucidly truths, though give onto abrupt pursued complexity neededthebrutal ofa dogmatic reason. style knows contrasts, His also its counterpoint in in and a peculiar massively repetitive itsaffirmations: perverse labyrinthineitspursuit, combination an "I know, know" of I andtransgressive anda "still (this ruse) proliferating In and all" (theremustbe some totalizing meaning). orderto escape thisaggressive I that essential theanalysis tactics for of seduction, willsuppose(in myturn) something must at stakeinthis be contrast. blanket The characterization Bouridieu's casts "theory" overthesetactics, though extinguish flames certifying subsumption to their as their by undersocio-economic or them unconscious thusin some and rationality, bydeclaring senseinoperative agents, as to teachus something to abouttheir ought relationship all theory. criteria procedures, and a thesetactics makeso autonomous use ofinstituBy their tionaland symbolic thatwere we to take themseriously scientific the organization of and of wouldbe lostin them. The postulates ambitions the representation society latter all the of couldnotresist; divisions material, givebefore normalities, generalities, Mathtransversal "metaphorizing" and of microactivities. proliferation thesedifJferent in refinement their of ematics and exactsciences involved an interminable are specific to movements non-human of the microbian phenologicin theattempt follow random mena. As forthesocialsciences, whoseobjectis evenmore"subtle"justas however, to instrumentation is cruder, wouldremain an ultimate their there as only defend option will such their models(or inother their tomastery) exorcizing a proliferation. words, by the of consider And in fact, the and truemethods exorcism itself, they following tried a latter singular local)phenomenon, unconscious is tosay,alieninits (or (that something its haveofitalready. and the unwittingly, knowledge judges very principle) as revealing, is into Whenthe"observer" locked and is institution, thus securely enough hisjudiciary it is and seemsto hold blind, sufficiently theoperation successful thediscourse produces good. however. be sure,at some(relatively To like thishappensin Bourdieu, Nothing the of of obvious)level,he also seemsto moveout(in thedirection thetactics, objects a kind false of of rationality): onlyto return again(in a confirmationprofessional study) that retreat suggest he himself a But sortie, meretextual not hasty "strategy." does this suchoverly offer scientific to knowsthe (perhaps mortal) intelligent practices danger of This Pascalian combination thedisintegration of knowledge? wouldbe somedistantly and aboutscientific reasonand a dogmatic faith. Bourdieu knows much too knowledge tactics toowell, whose ruses thepower which is founded, as heknows on it these only just ruses he replays with in He therefore all these lock suchvirtuosityhisowntexts. must up
and negate,through fetish thehabitus, of the behindthe bars of an unconscious anything He reason lacks to be otherthanthereasonof thestrongest. willthus-with thedoctrine of the habitus-affirm the contrary what he knows-a most traditional of popular him of tactic-and thisdefense(a homage paid to the authority reason) willthenafford
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thescientific of in tactics carefully circumscribed places. possibility observing Ifthis thecase (butwhowould ina position sayso?),Bourdieu teach as is be to can us muchbyhisown"dogmatism" byhis"case-histories." discourse as The which conceals thanhiding whathe knows(rather whathe does notknow)wouldhave theprecise value of practicing knowledge; wouldthusbe the result a "theoretical" that it of to conscious and the of exteriority, notmerely theater relationship itsownineradicable an elucidation. it possiblethatsuchdiscourse Is itself thereby rejoinsthat"knowing accusedof beingknowledgeable without becauseit it, ignorance," knowing precisely knows says onlytoo wellwhatit neither norcan say?
V. THE ARTS OF THEORY AND THE THEORY OF THE ARTS
Whentheory, the instead isso often caseofbeing as discourse other, upon preexistent into in ventures non-or preverbal domains which there onlypractices are discourses, without accompanying arise. There a sudden is and discourse, shift, any unique problems therockbottom language missing. theoretical of is The finds at itself operation suddenly thelimits itsnormal of like but terrain, a carat theedgeofa cliff-beyond, nothing the sea. and work thecliff on Foucault Bourdieu when to a that they attempt invent discourse can speakofnondiscursive Nor the to back practices. arethey first do so: without going we to theflood, can at leastsaythat theoretical no research since Kanthasbeenable to some overtstatement to its relationship nonverbal, as do without to nondiscursive "remnant" everythinghuman in to of which not has activity, thatimmense experience been tamedand symbolized language. has by Onlyone science beenable to avoidthis a confrontation: conditions itself as tolieinwait things for so for within that setting priori limitedfieldwheretheycan be "verbalized." This is experimental science,which and that of which "makethem will its anticipates objectswithin grid hypothesis models of like hunters' the of speak,"itsbattery questions, so many traps, transformingsilence intoanswers, language."A genuinely into theoretical on things inquiry, thecontrary, does not forget, cannotforget, thatalongside relationship variousscientific the of discourses there their eachother, to which among persists mutual relationshipeverything has had to be excludedfrom in suchdiscourse orderto found in the first it place. Theoretical discourse thusretains linkto theproliferationwhatdoes not(yet?) its of mustevidently numbered practices everyday itself. be the of life speak, amongwhich
the Theory is thus the memoryof this wordlessremnant, Antigoneof what is refused
admittance the halls of science.Theoryconstantly to to this attempts reintroduce technical reminder intoa scientific where back constraints made have unfortunate space in But itsomission (and supposedly a provisory necessary. howcan way) "politically" or it manageto do so? By scandal bystrategem? To answerthisquestion mustreturn a moment Foucault we for to and Bourdieu, whoseimportant are and mark findings significantly divergent, indeed virtually thetwo field research. of sharea certain of Still, poles of thepresent they process construction
and a similar different schema,in spiteof their objectsof study, operational problematics,
to der the is witnesses 38Kantalreadysaid as muchin the Kritik reinen Vernunft: scientist a "judge whoforces formulated." replyto questions he has himself
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be two variants a "recipe" of and perspectives. Theymaythus saidto constitute distinct for theories practice. in cooking, recipecan be appliedin quite different of As a and and and circumstances forquitedifferent purposes, also has itstricks itsgoodand witha Yet bad practitioners. in the same way thata cooking recipeis punctuated in and the can be resumed twosteps:extract, thenreverse-first "ethnooperation of its logical"isolation an object,then logicalinversion. a from seamlessweb, in orderto The first particular practices step disengages them a distinct separate and a whole which nonetheless into is constitute corpus, coherent is Foucault's or alien to the place in which theory produced: panoptical procedures, in the Bourdieu's Meanwhile, both instances, genre (for "strategies." KabyleorBearnais is to of isolated taken be themetonymy Foucault)or theplace (forBourdieu)thereby is the whole species: a part,observable becauseit has been circumscribed,used to in in of To this the totality practices general. be sure, Foucault, represent (undefinable) of isolationis used to makesenseout of thespecific a dynamics a giventechnology; In work. Bourdieu, analogous an certain by dicoupageis thus generated thehistorian's is around given a of isolation supposedly by imposed thedefense patrimony space,and is fact. as and and offered a socioeconomic a geographic Yet thesameethnological metonymic is to analyses. dicoupage common both In thesecondstep,theunity isolated reversed: thus is what obscure, was unspoken, and culturally becomes very the element which throws on thetheory alien,suddenly light in is In embodied the and upon whichthe discourse founded. Foucault, procedures of or without discursurveillance army, hospital, any systems school, micro-apparatuses to become have the sivelegitimacy, utterly techniques foreign theAufklarung, suddenly which makessenseofourownsociety wellas of thehuman as sciences. veryrationale and as techniques, allowFoucault and his discourse Both as objectsof study to they in In the and becomevirtually turn, tosee everything.Bourdieu, distant panoptical their is and inverted, strategies similarly coming space ofsubtle, polymorphous, transgressive and articulate theory a which now sees the same practices to document reproduced Reducedtothehabitus which manifest, essentially these instinctive and they everywhere. unconscious now allow Bourdieuto explaineverything to transform and strategies into of on of Thus,inspite theemphasis Foucault theresults by everything consciousness. theprocedures examines, that byBourdieu he and rather the"essential on laid principle" in ofwhich strategies theeffects, perform sameoperation, his are which both the consists secretand aphasic practices into the centralaxis of theirtheories, transforming in and makingthisessentially nocturnal over into a mirror whichtheir population can forth. discourse shine explanatory This very"tactic"marks their theories members thesamespeciesof practice as of own eventhough their reduction their objects of allows them to they analyze, metonymic the in that their of repress very operation generates theories thefirst place.Foucault, course, the in studies determination discourse procedures thecase of thehuman of by already
sciences: his own analysis, however, betraysan apparatus analogous to those whose it betweenthe functioning was able to reveal. We would have to studythe differences panoptical procedures Foucault has told us about, and the twin gestureof his own its narrative,which consists in isolatinga foreignbody of proceduresand inverting obscure contentinto a luminoustext. certain number of action imperatives (blend, beat, bake . . .), so also the theoretical
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the in aboveand beyond two We mustfirst examine twin this gesture moredetail, far theoretical workshitherto studiedhere. In fact,such procedures, frombeing amount an ancient to which no lessinteresting all is for recipefortheory exceptional, from turn thecentury: the of that.We need onlymention well-known two examples in suchpractices a "primitive" and their of situate also, inconstructing theories practice, in contrast ourowncivilized is to closedspace, a realmwhich properly "ethnological" discover theoretical the of societies:and in thatobscure formulation their place they of theArunta Australia-themost it is in the sacrificial of Thus, practices analysis. of Durkheim discovers basis a social the of and peoples-that theory a "primitive"allprimitive for The restriction sacrifice that on the modern socialethic society: imposes appropriate will renders coexistence mutually and unlimited of the individual agreedconventions renunciation abnegation and and enableplurality conpossible;thus,forDurkheim, of of is which to saysociety itself: acceptance limits thefoundation thesocial the is tracts, For the of meanwhile, essential contract.39 Freud, may concepts psychoanalysis be detected the the of in thepractices theprimal of horde:incest, castration, emergence Law from inthat direct no Suchdetours all themore are deathofthefather.40 experience striking to the had them. Neither FreudnorDurkheim anyoccasion observe practices validates of as experience the terrain Marx had of theydiscuss,and had as littlefirst-hand I4 into becomereconstituted an enigmatic factories. How is it thenthatsuchpractices the secret theory be read,as itwere, of can backwards? closurein which ultimate of in we the are suchpractices which surprise secret ourownexistence no Today, with It time itself. wouldbe vainto distant unfamiliar, grow and but evernearer longer when is lodged of it in or seek this reality Australia at thebeginning history, ethnological if oron theoutskirts,notthe ownsystem at thevery heart our of (panoptical procedures) evencloser (the still of our cities(Kabyleor B&arnais strategies), perhaps verycenter, We Yet however closeitscontent, ethnological persists. the "unconscious" form itself). of our modernity-in thisform-a privileged musttherefore interrogate first figure hold which distance from nonetheless thekeyto its housedat great knowledge practices secrets. reflection at of It is not exactly itsown freewillthattheoretical keepspractice a of to outside itself study exterior this in to which then it distance, order be forced object to it are steps infact repetionlyneedsto invert return to itsownhouse.Itsprocedural on the in the itstudies tions by procedures imposed theory history: regions which nondiscursive so Indian wereformed thepastandconstituteditinto many reservations for are found by by in likea frontier, the cameto function something as science.Suchregions enlightened and of scientific courseof the establishment thevarious by disciplines theAufklarung; within and differences "resistances" unassimilable came to standas so many gradually from on. in are thescientific whosecanons established the18th texts century So itis that of on that thearts doing, of thenameofprogress newdifferentiation into a comes being: in inventoried popular the one hand, formulas practical for increasingly operations,
de (Paris, 1968); and see also W.S.F. Pickering, "3Emile Durkheim,Les Formes616mentaires la viereligieuse Durkheimon Religion(London, 1975). 40Freud, Totemand Taboo. politique(Paris, 1978). 41See Fritz Raddatz, Karl Marx, une biographie
Forms of ReligiousLife and Freud's Totemand Taboo. They Durkheim's Elementary
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25
into which newepisteme sciences a brings being. with between no coincides thetraditional Thisdistinction longer "theory" opposition whichdeciphers book of the cosmos,and its the and "practice"(the "speculation" one two nowdesignates quitedistinct concrete but operations: "applications"), rather the in in the Indeed,from 16th discursive, and by language, otherlacking discourse. and between the revolutionizes relationship on, knowing century the idea of method into transformed discursive "operations" slowly practices, doing:legal and rhetorical a specific for into fields on exercized diversified andthus techniques transforming milieu, a which a itself: discourse of schema method the organizes impose fundamental gradually of administration a certain into of thinking a formof doing,the rationalized way the Suchis "method," very fields. for and designed specific production an operation of the it And sourceofcontemporary scientificity. ina sense, constitutes systematization now Yet of to thatartwhich Plato,in theGorgias, assigns therealm activity.44 method runs no The its by knowledge wayofdiscourse. boundaryline longer organizes technical to attached the one of betweentwo hierarchical types knowledge, speculative, other is whiletheother the in theone absorbed reading orderof theworld particularities, devised thefirst; the within framework the of to content explore detail things rather, by are and which not in articulated discourse those now between theboundary runs practices notyet)verbalized. (or such technical of What will be the statusof such forms nonverbal know-how, and is on thediscourse method bothwriting knowwithout (since writing techniques a but operativities, ledge)? The realmof skillis made up of multiple undisciplined of to obedient those but which doesnotobeythelawsofdiscourse isalready proliferation of and the valueofa physiocratic subsequentlya capitalist economy. production, ultimate of overtheorganization of the thus Such activities challenge primacy scientific writing of the and stimulate technicians language; they alternately exasperate they production; one but of and practices, rather of proposea conquest, nota conquest inconsequential BacontoChristian From ofknowledge. and "operative" types "complex," "ingenious," effort made to colonizethisvast is an or Wolff JeanBeckmann, therefore, immense can as not reservoir "arts"and "crafts" of which, yetable to be articulated sciences, and nonetheless introduced be into languageby meansof a "description" thereby which derives of Withthesetwo terms-that "description" increasingly "perfected." to technological which of and that "perfection" from progress-the aspires narrativity, of the of situation the"arts"is fixed: near,yetoutside boundaries science.45 of of a as is The Encyclopidie thesumma wellas themanifesto this process collation: and "sciences" "arts" It Arts Crafts. juxtaposes and the Reasoned of Sciences, Dictionary whose are the assimilation: former operatory in the promiseof a future languages for still thelatter formal constitute and syntax techniques waiting an systems, grammar on of short it. In his article Art,Diderotseeksto knowledge, falling yet enlightened
1975. dansla viequotidienne, Le of nationale, 42See thecatalogue theexposition, livre Bibliotheque de foundedthe Soci't6 des Observateurs Ilhommein 1799. Jouffret 43Louis-Francois 44Gorgias, 465a. in de la and 45J.Guillerme J.Sebestik pp. ("Les commencements technologie,"Thall's,Vol. XII, 1966, 1-72)
of to of attractive the"observers man";43and,on theother hand,that the literature;42
of status: are of of (pp. intermiediary arts objects Description 2, 4, 32,37,41,46-47, givea series examples this etc.).
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the these disparate two entities. havean "art,"he tells "if We between us, clarify relation the object is to be contemplated": distinction a between and performance speculation than Cartesian. samedistinction The "art" Baconian isreduplicated within which more is on the is or itself, depending whether artinquestion merely represented actually into put the and the practice:"Each art has its speculation its practice: former, inoperative of and the use samerules." knowledge itsrules;thelatter, habitual unreflected ofthose and Art is thusa form knowledge of which outside discourse is operates enlightened it. know-how evenoutrun can science absentfrom Indeed,suchtechnical by enlightened in itsvery of Diderot "It notes: is obvious Thus,speaking geometry thearts, complexity. is far and than thatacademicgeometry in itselements morerudimentary undeveloped for thegeometry theworkshops." of Calculus for is, example, quiteinadequate problems textiledeformations, of leverage,friction, and clockwork, the like. The desirable wouldbe the"appropriate task"for ancient an and solution "experimental manipulative even though "language"of the latter remained the has mathematics," undeveloped, of owingto "the dearthof its own properwordsor terms"and the "abundance to [manouvriers] Diderot,following Girard,refers thosearts By "manipulative" which limited the"adaptation" rawmaterials: are to of etc., cutting, trimming, joining, on some"newbeing"(bysmelting, without etc.) composition, as the conferring them arts a as as "manufacturing" do.47They"form" newproduct little they dispose properly are But of a languageof their forms bricolage. as knowledge of is own; they simply of to thecriterion productivity, arts such win intonewhierarchies reorganized according newlinesof a twofold value: of reference, to and owing their operativity, of opening In to their and subtlety. their "experimental manipulative" very development, owing the with moreproperly cometo consti"scientific" they incommensurability languages, tutean absolute practical of a of detached words, form efficacity which, (in activity other fromdiscourse, its of nonetheless embodies productivist ideal), as well as a reserve in workshops in thecountryside, a Logos hidden and awayin uncatalogued knowledge and at thefuture science. of Thereis thus introduced the into handicraft already hinting ofscience thearts problem time theepistemologically the of to superior lag: relationship knowsciences separated a temporal are from these orforms technical arts of by handicap in to howwhich are supposed, time, elucidate. they such which both are distant from "Observers" therefore towards practices the throng this early 1699:"The workshops as of and ahead ofthem. Fontenelle as sciences urged our artisans showa spirit an inventiveness all kinds and which hitherto has to of failed which needto examine to reflect instruments practices and on and attract notice. People . . are so usefuland so ingeniously devised .."I4 These willbecomethe collectors, and hererecognize typeof knowledge a Still,even though describers, analysts. they nonetheless that thescientists, must of the which from they disengage former its preceded of transform a specific into discourse its own theseso-called language, "improper" will all of handicraft. Science turn these "marvels" everyday Cinderellas princesses; into
46Encyclop6die(Geneva: Pellet, 1773), Volume 3, articleArt,pp. 450-455. of 47Ibid., articleCatalogue, by David aftera manuscript Girard.See on thissubjectGuillerme& Sebestik, pp. 2-3. des 48Fontenelle, Preface to Histoirede l'Academie royale pour 1699, where Sur la description Arts is published; quoted in Guillerme& Sebestik,p. 33, note 1.
synonyms."46
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this of to on is and with aim,thetype ethnological operation be performed suchpractices henceforth secured:the latter's social isolation a demands kindof "education" which in makethem will,bylinguistic inversion, presentable scientific writing. It is noteworthy from 18th the20thcentury, that the to historians ethnologists and theirstandpoint, as have, from alwaysconsidered techniques essentially respectable. to the without They are content notewhatoperations latter interpretationperform, a is those stories which consider mere"legend" Theymeanwhile by description enough. tries placeorsymbolize ownactivities, another to its of yet group strange given example the disparity betweenthe treatment practices of and of discourse. Wherethe first the the the of activity, secondunmasks "lies" of registers "truth" doingor ofpractical contrast with of descriptions theformer strikingly theprolix speech.Indeed,thebrief a the which or objectfor professioninterpretations havemademyths legends privileged als of language, clerks for with hermeneutic trained, their long passeddown procedures to professors from to comment glossreferential and docuand/or jurists ethnologists, and "translate" ments them intoscientific texts. At length, development complete, thefield wordless this is and of has practices been A and will circumscribed.hundred fifty have Durkheim scarcely later, years historically to modify "ethnological" the it-whenhe takes the reinforce merely description-but up of to which purepractice are is, problem the"arts,"that according him,"thosethings in without Durkheim theory."Here is the absoluteof "operativity" all its purity. continues: "An artis a system practical of activities toparticular andthese ends, adjusted activities either product traditional the are of transmittededucation the or by experience result thepersonal of oftheindividual." inparticularity bereft of and experience Lodged thegeneralizing of language, is no lessa "system" no lessorganized art and by power to science and ethics speakin the now "ends"-and thesetwobasicpostulates entitle it which lacked.Also discourse place of art and to hold that"proper"or intrinsic of of theorist education ofsociology and is characteristic theinterest thispioneering and forartistic production acquisition:"The onlywayto acquirean artis to place withtheobjectson which works it and to perform activity this selfin contact one's no of one's self." Thus Durkheim longeropposesthe "immediacy" its operations to some lag or neglect of theorywith respectto "manipulative"knowledge, retains hierarchy a based on education. "An art," as Diderot did; but the former "canno doubt self-conscious be or enlightened,usethis word to Durkheim continues, key but since of theAufklcirung, suchreflection notitsessential is ingredient, it can exist it. no without Yet there exists artwhich fully is reflexive."49 In a science, which "fully is reflexive"? anycase,in a terminology still Is there then, which of"contemplation," the that theEncyclop6die, is assigned akinto of theory spoke on thisnew"totality." for Moregenerally, Durkheim, is a taskof "reflecting" society in is inscribed there a knowledge textwhich by onlyhe can decipher; thesametoken, in it Science be themirror which canbe read, will but thesepractices, notyetilluminated. and a this and willoffer language "reflect" immediate, to precise, wordless unconyet andyetat thesametimeunformed. sciousoperativity, already intelligent As Durkheim observed about sacrifice (whichis "closerto us thanits apparent
See Bourdieu, Esquisse, p. 211, who sees in 49E. Durkheim,Educationet sociologie(Paris, 1922), pp. 87ff. this text a "perfectdescription"of "learned ignorance."
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crudenesswould lead us to believe"50),art is a kindof knowledge whichis essentialto it. science yet illegiblewithout This is to be sure a dangerouspositionforscience itself, whatit lacks in itsown right. Thus a kind since it is leftonlywiththepowerto articulate of complimentarity envisaged between science and art, or even a kind of mutual is articulation,as Wolff,followingSwedenborgand anticipating Lavoisier, Desaudray, man who would unitescience Auguste Comte, and others,willpropose in 1740: "a third and artin himself, who wouldmakeup fortheweaknesses thetheoreticians, as and of just he would free lovers of the arts fromthe erroneousidea thatthe lattermight perfect . themselveswithoutany theory altogether . . ."5' This mediatorbetween"the man of theorems"and "the man of experience""52 would be the engineer. The "thirdman" has hauntedenlightened or discourseand (philosophical scientific) still does, but he did not end up takingthe formanticipated.The place ultimately was the resultof assigned him (and todayslowlyreduplicated thatof the technocrat) by the progressive the of its detachment, throughout 19thcentury, artfrom own techniques on theone hand, and thegeometrization mathematization thosetechniques the and of on other. Little by little whatevercould be detached fromindividualperformance was an complex "perfected" in the formof machines,whichthenconstitute administrable of forms,raw material,and forces.These "technicalorgans" are now withdrawn from manual competency(which they surpass when they become machinery)and placed withina new space of theirown, underthesupervision theengineer:theynow belong of to "technology." Thus the older technicalknow-how littleby littleemptiedof what is articulated in thepractical it of formerly and, as itssheertechniques activity individuals; are withdrawn and turnedintomachinesin theirown right, tendsitself-bereft the it of to language of its procedures(whichare now returned themand even imposedon them by machines)-to be reduced to the conditionof some merelysubjective knowledge, or skills,whose status appearance of "intuition" "instinctive" takingon the quasi-secret remainsundetermined. of Thus theoptimization techniquein the 19thcentury, drawing on the artsand crafts themodels,pretexts, constraints itsmechanical for or of inventions, leaves nothing behindforthe practices dailylifebut a terrain of sweptclear of meansor a like of theirown: something a domainoffolklore, double silenceszone bereft products of verbaldiscourseas well,henceforth, even those"manipulative" of languagesitused to wield. Yet suchpractices retaina kindofknowledge, nowmissing technical one its apparatus in have no legitimacy thesight (of whichmachineshave been made) and whose activities of a reigning as skillsof cooking, rationality, is the case withthe everyday productivist cleaning, sewing, and the like. Meanwhile, this remnantleftover by technological colonization acquires the value of purely"private" activity, becomes chargedwiththe of beneaththe aegis of collectiveor symbolicinvestments daily life,beginsto function individual particularity, in short made over into somethinglike the active and is of in still or of memory everything stirring themargins interstices thedominant legendary or scientific culturalnorms.These remaining, or practicalactivities modes of privatized of doing-indices of singularity, poetic or tragicmurmur daily life itself-are now
op. s5Durkheim,Formes le1mentaires, cit., p. 495. of S'ChristianWolff,Preface to the German translation Belidor,Architecture 1740; quoted in hydraulique, Guillerme & Sebestik,p. 23. 52H. de Villeneuve, "Sur quelques prejugesdes industriels" (1832), quoted in Guillerme& Sebestik,p. 24.
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find into introduced novelortale,where massively they a newspaceofrepresentationthatoffiction, with those virtuosities skills and which science cannot peopled quotidian handleand which becomethesignatures those of micro-narratives ofeveryone's anonymous dailylife.Literature suchis nowtransformed therepertory practices into as of whichlack scientific and willlateralso find privileged a copyright; they place in the tellin psychiatric stories institutions on thepsychoanalyst's or couch. patients Thisis to saythat now"stories" all kinds of endow with of daily practices theregister eventhough offer latter fragmentarymetaphoric the in or forms. they narrativity, only Thisis infact continuation a variation spite thediscontinuities a and of in epistemes) (in in thelongtradition narrative of documents which from tales-thosestorehouses folk of schematic activities-allthewayto the"Descriptions Arts"of theclassical of period, in activities the form narratives. thistradition of In muststillbe presenttechnical numbered contemporary the as micro-novels areethnological which novel, wellas those of handicraft culinary or and so on. This tradition this and descriptions techniques, that has theoretical relevance thestudy to continuity suggests narrativity a fundamental of of thepractices everyday life. of in to must The "return" suchpractices narration be linked a vaster historically yet moreindeterminate that be phenomenon might calledtheaestheticization ofknowledge in know-how. of this Indeed,stripped itsprocedures, kindof knowimplied technical ofartistic ledgemostoften passesfor"taste,""tact,"even"ingenuity"-characteristics or biological intuition-akind knowledge of which unself-conscious, leastwhose is or at self-consciousness cannot of the Between and provide mastery inner reflexivity. practice it a theory, occupies a "third"place, nondiscursive, primitive, originary, kind of to and "source" of all the things be differentiated elucidated more"advanced" by systems. This knowledge cannot known. relationship practice be Its to of givesit thestatus or of of statements an unconscious in cases, myths fables, namely, being knowledge: both a knowledge individual do its without uponwhich subjects notreflect, betraying presence are the and it, beingable to appropriate suchthatthey finally merely tenants, notthe of own Their statements notmakeusaskifknowledge do is proprietors, their know-how. in can be other it (we by knowledge only known someone present them assume is),butthis thanthespeakers of that of As the or themselves. with skill poets painters, ofthepractices who it dailylifecan onlybe known wayof an interpreter illuminates in his own by discursive without it than do. therefore mirror, possessing anymore they Thisknowledge in the last instance from unconsciousness its the of belongsto nobody:it circulates to of without on any practitioners thereflexivityitsnon-practitioners finally depending individual and a of subject.It is an anonymous referential knowledge, merecondition for or possibility technical learned practices. Freudianpsychoanalysis offers particularly a version thismodelof a of striking bereft ofreading both of marginalized (it knowledge, procedures hasno proper language its own) and of anylegitimate thatcorresponds it). to (thereis no subject proprietor functions a presupposition on which onlybeenvalidated itsown has Psychoanalysis by
effects,namely, that there is a kind of knowledge,which is however unconscious; Patients'narratives reciprocally,it is the unconsciousalone thatknows.53 [Krankenge53A
constanttheme in Freud, althoughthe statusof this"knowledge" remainstheoretically undecided.
30
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tell at and schichten] thisparticular story interminable length; indeedpsychoanalysts since Freudhave learnedit againfrom own experience: their know "people already which in of however, the position the "subject everything"-something the analyst, to is to It who'ssupposed know," supposed permit to them articulate. is as though the of of and metaphor a repressed recontained workshops Diderothavebecomethevery and of he knowledge which spoke space in whichthat"experimental manipulative" hold uponit. the a or might anticipates discourse psychoanalytic theory "academy" often abouttheir clients (and abouteverybody else): "Somewhere, say Analysts deep knowthetruth." "Somewhere": where? is their It but that down,they practices know of is and etc. but conduct, there, it-gestures, ways talking walking, Knowledge certainly whose knowledge? rigorous precise thisknowledge, and So is indeed,thatall of the criteria scientificity to havebeentransported andbaggage therealm of seem of into bag theunconscious, its and on and side,ruses tactics leaving only fragments effects theother of thesortthatused to characterize "arts"themselves. this the In reason is inversion, now whatis unself-conscious cannot and and speak-the unknown thein-fans-while is morethan "improper" the of consciousness little "enlightened" particlanguage that ularknowledge. But thisreversal moresignificant has for of consequences theprimacy consciousness than it does for the traditional model of the relationship and between knowledge as a discourse.In the handicraft "workshops" well as the Freudianunconscious, is fundamental primitive and which runs aheadof away,a knowledge knowledge stored but lacksanyculture itsown.Theanalyst of discourse, which proposes-for enlightened the"knowing" theunconscious as much for as that handicraft-the of for of chance just in and distinctions between well words" for Whatever dimly this stirs synonyms. "proper of into of knowledge at leastpertially "reflected" theory theboraddaylight be can by of and "scientific" So, acrossthreecenturies, in spiteof the vicissitudes language. the what transformation ofscientific consciousness thesuccessive or epistemes, remains same is a binary two on between terms: theone hand,a referential and relationship an on discourse which forth into "uneducated" knowledge, theother, explanatory brings of itsdimsource.Thisdiscourse "theory." is It the light inverted the representation and of"seeing/showing" or "contemplating" retains ancient classical its (theorein) meaning and is thusvery or precisely "en-lightened" "en-lightening."
VI. KANT AND THE "ART" OF THINKING
that raisethequestion therelationship of an It is characteristic Kantshould between or art of doing(Kunst)and science(Wissenschaft), between and (Technik) technique in which of moved from study taste a the of to (Theorie) thecourse research slowly theory of On itself.54 this which leadsfrom taste judgment, to he trajectory critique judgment of of which encounters art-as theparameter a form practical transcends knowledge in form alike. Kantdiscerns thistype practical of and know-how knowledge aesthetic whathe felicitously "logical calls tact"(logischle Thusinscribed within orbit the of Takt).
540n the evolutionfromthe projectof a Critiqueof Taste(1787) to the composition the Critique the of of (1790), see VictorDelbos, La Philosophiepratiquede Kant (Paris, 1969), pp. 416-422. Facultv of Jtudgerment Kant's text may be foundin the Kritik der Urteilskraft, secton43 ("Von der Kunst uiberhaupt"), ed. Werke, Weischedel (Insel, 1957), Vol. 5, pp. 401-402.
Everyday Practices
31
an aesthetic, the art of doing is placed beneath the sign of judgment,an "a-logical" conditionof thought."5 The traditional between"operativity" "reflection" and antinomy is here surmounted a viewpoint an which,recognizing artat theveryrootof thought, by makes judgmentthe "middle term"(Mittelglied) betweentheory and praxis.The art of thusconstitutes synthetic a betweenthe two. thinking unity Kant's examples deal specifically with daily practices: "The facultyof judgment . transcendsunderstanding . . . Facultyof judgingthe dressof a chambermaid. Faculty of judgingthe dignity the whichdoes appropriateto a givenbuilding, typeof ornament not contradict the end in view.""6Judgment does not bear solelyon social "decorum" (the elastic equilibriumof a networkof tacit contracts)but more generallyon the elements:itexiststhusonlyin theact ofconcretely relationship amongnumerous creating a new ensembleby a decorouscorrelation theolder relationship of witha supplementary it element, just as one adds a red or an ochre to a picture,transforming without it. of intoanotherone is the destroying This transformation a givenstateof equilibrium of principlecharacteristic an "art." Kant sharpens this definition quoting a general discursiveauthority which is by however always local and concrete: in my part of the world, he writes(in meinem the Gegend: in my regionor country), "commonman" (der gemeineMann) says (sagt) that magicians(Taschenspieler)exerciseknowledge(anybodycan do it who knowsthe trick), while acrobats (Seiltanzer) exercise an art.57 Walking a tightropeinvolves of it renewed maintainingan equilibrium everyinstantby recreating withperpetually a relationship whichis never acquired once and forall, and interventions; preserving which ceaseless invention mustrenewwhileseemingto "perpetuate"it. Thus an art of findsan admirabledefinition, the more so since the practitioner all himself knowledge to thisequilibrium whichhe modifies without it. In this necessarily belongs compromising and maintaining the capacity formakinga new ensembleout of a preexisting harmony latter'sformalrelationship a variation elements, participates whatis of he in throughout such would be the incessant innovation tastewithin of essentiallyan artistic production: practicalexperience. But thisart also designateseverything scientific in workitself whichdoes not merely on the (indispensable) applicationof rules and models and in the last instance depend remainswhatFreud willalso call "a matter tact" (eine Sache des Takts)."5 of Freudhad in mind diagnosticpractice,the matter judgment of calls which,in a practical intervention, into question a relationship an equilibriumbetween a multitude elements.For or of Freud as well as forKant, thisinvolvesan autonomousfaculty, whichcan be refined one but not taught: "Lack of judgment,"Kant tells us, "is veryproperlywhat is called and It sciencejust as much stupidity, thisvice knowsno remedy.""'59is a vicewhichaffects as anything else.
SsSee A. Philonenko, Theorieetpraxis dans la pens6emoraleetpolitiquede Kant et de Fichteen 1793 (Paris, Heinrichs,Das Problemder Zeit in der praktischen 1968), pp. 19-24; Jiirgen PhilosophieKants (Kantstudien, Vol. 95, esp. pp. 34-43); and Paul Guyer, Kant and theClaims of Taste(Cambridge,1979), pp. 120-165,331350. S6Quoted in A. Philonenko,op. cit., p. 22, n. 17. section43. S7Kant, Kritikder Urteilskraft, S5Freud, GesammelteWerke, XIII, p. 330; XIV, p. 66; etc.; and see M. de Certeau, L'Ecriturede l'histoire (Paris, 1978), p. 310. der S"Kritik Reinen Vernunft, quoted in A Philonenko,op. cit., p. 21.
32
de Certeau
the of Betweenunderstanding desires), faculty (whichknows)and reason(which a subjective between formal is a imagina"arrangement," "equilibrium" judgment thus is to one It of of tionand comprehension.has theform a kind pleasure, which relative a in playtheconcrete ofa thanto exteriority, modeof exercise rather setting experience and It of universal between imagination understanding.is a sense principal harmony Without sense(Genmeinsinn) or judgment. common but (Sittnn), one thatis "common": various deniestheideological division that between on dwelling thedetailsof a thesis we canat least observe this that kind and their socialhierarchy, forms knowledge, thus of in the threeelements we aboveofa already present "ripping-off," example havegiven daily contemporary "tactic." in of form judgment of invested an ethical poetic the and act Perhaps antecedent this whenitwas also a kind "tact,"the in of is to be sought theolderreligious experience, the in and poetic or of practices, ethical apprehension creation "harmony" particular in series concrete of a of (tying up), of creating harmony an indefinite gesture religare acts. Newmanalso sees this as a kind of "tact." But as the resultof historical the available the to which restricted kinds equilibrium of havesingularly displacements weregradually substituted aesthetic version "tightrope of walking," practices religious been had forthesereligious ones,and thisaesthetic increasingly isolated practice itself it toGadamer, and Schleiermacher from from tothe where, operativity scientificity point a tradition has becomethat to appeals marginal experience which whole"hermeneutic" assisted a particular science. a function genius As of its of to found critique objective by Kantis the Revolution), (all conjuncture thewayfrom artofJ.S. Bach to theFrench the form theconcrete where ethical aesthetic and of at religious positioned a crossroads artistic creation and act alone remains content (whileitsdogmatic disappears), where which the and act. retains senseofa moral technical Thistransitive combination, already of of furnishes a between "critique taste"anda "metaphysic manners," in Kantwavers and modern reference theanalysis theaesthetic, an inaugural for of ethical, practical nature everyday of know-how. Kant returns the determination "tact"in a piece of enlightened to of journalism, in in of Revolution theBerlinische Monatsschrift published the verythick theFrench in of "It 1793)on thesubject a "proverbial saying": MayBe Right Theory (September, in But It Won'tWork Practice."o60 important This theoretical thus text takes itsobject as scholars a and in itself thelanguage thepress that of (and itstitle) proverb, expresses (so have calledthisa "popular work"ofKant).The text partofa debateinwhich, after is Kant's own repliesto Christian Gentz Garve'sobjections of (1792),articles Friedrich Wilhelm Rehber 1794)takeupthecommentary (December, (February, 1793)andAugust thatis, at one and the same timea whichis a Spruch, on thisparticular proverb, and a authorizes which (wisdom), maxim (judgment), an oracle(or enunciation proverb itself thatthisproverb the Is of receives knowledge). it as an effect the Revolution of of as around itself, philosophical pertinence a verse(or Spruch) scripture, mobilizing
60"Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugtaber nichtfiirdie Praxis." The text (in Kant, Werke,ed. was reeditedand presentedby Dieter Henrichwiththe entiredebate Weischedel, 1964, Vol. VI, pp. 127ff) and praxis,in Kant, Gentz, Rehberg,Uber Theorieund Praxis betweentheory 1793-1794on the relationshp are dossier.See also thevaluableEnglishtranslation Kant's of (Suhrkamp, 1967); references to thisremarkable text published separately:Kant On the Old Saw: Thatmay be right Theorybut it won'tworkin Practice, in introduction G. Miller, trans.E.B. Ashton (Philadelphia,1974). by
and a (practical)action-the very an of tactlinksa (moral) freedom, (aesthetic) creation,
Practices Everyday
33
in the ancienteditionsof Talmud,Koran, or Bible, the exegetical of knowledge debate aroundthisproverb also evokesthe New theoreticians?6'The philosophical in of or theme of of Testament speaking themidst scribes, thepopular story theInfans of the"wisethree-year-old."62 it a Henceforth, forever, is no longer question childhood is translated "old saw"),butrather as or evenofold age (as whenKant'sGemeinspruch or whose ofanybody everybody, the"common" "ordinary" and of man, (gemein) saying to themselves causesthem proliferate and as so often callsintoquestion intellectuals the commentaries. It which Kant a a This common "saying"does not affirm principle. ratifies fact, in of as the sign,either the insufficient of interest the practitioner theory interprets in himself. of development theory the theoretician proper,or else of insufficient is of but to the "Whenever tends failinpractice, fault notthat theory itself, itis theory that havebeenlearned from is ofthetype should rather there notyetenough that theory the of distinct man the under guise three form a three-act where common appears of play whose and to the characters businessman, politician, themanoftheworld) opposition (the of the enables analysis problems three Hobbes,andMendelssohn) (Garve, philosophers here ofethics, constitutional andtheinternational order. What essential is lessthe is law, within faculties of of mental thantheprinciple a formal of examples harmony variety in nor can be The latter neither localized scientific discourse, inanyparticular judgment. it and aesthetic nor expression: is an artof thinking, one on technique, in a particular it as much theory. intheacrobat's as As which activity,has just ordinary depend practices that It is therefore surprising theoretical and not ethical, aesthetic, practical significance. be discourseson practicesuch as those of Foucalt or Bourdieushouldultimately an art.But at thatpointthemostun-Kantian arises,as to the by question governed boththeartof saying doingtheory thetheory art or and of natureof suchdiscourse, which bothmemory practice, narrative tact. is and the a discourse itself, of namely,
VII. STORYTELLING AND ITS TIMES
experience .
in . "" Whateverhis examples, Kant organizeshis demonstration the
As we stroll around these and them aboveorfrom below, practices contemplate from which neither saidnor"taught," only can be but we keepmissing something, "practiced." the that abovesuggest following The soundings conclusion, ifan "art"can attempted no its there exists specific enunciation it, of be practiced, outside ownexercise, it, only then must representcertain also a Iftheartofspeaking itself once at is language practice. an artofdoing an artofthinking, itought constitute theory practice and then to both and this We nowmaketworemarks this on simultaneously: artis storytelling. must subject, thefirst observation, seconda hypothesis future an the for research: is of are the activities, notmerely Practices, (1) A fiact first all indicative. practical Far itself. from of constructiontheory of the objectsofstudy theory. Theyorganize very
of Journal theHistory 61On Kant and the Revolution,see L.W. Beck, "Kant and theRight Revolution," of of Ideas, XXXII, 3 (July-September 1971), pp. 411-422; and esp. L.W. Beck, ed., Kant on History(New York, 1963). to 6"Luke, II, 41-50, on the child Jesus,"seated in the midstof the doctors,listening themand questioning withthe Wise Three-year-old, textanalyzed by Charles a them." This theme is renewedin popular literature Nisard in Histoiredes livres populaires(Paris, 1854), Vol. II, pp. 16-19,quoted byG. Bollime, La Bible bleue (Paris, 1975), pp. 222-227. "3UberTheorieund Praxis, p. 41.
34
de Certeau
the of with to itself produced. (Herewe also rejoin stance Wittgenstein respect "ordinary language.") to the of to that it (2) In order clarify relationship theory those procedures produce as wellas to thosewhich itsobjects study, possibility are of a comes mind: storytelling to a The narrativizationpractices discourse. of wouldthenbe a practical within the activity with ownprocedures tactics. textitself, its and sinceMarxandFreud(to limit Indeed, ourselves modern to authoritative are and case, times), examples scarcely lacking; inamy Foucaulttellsus that does nothing tellstories. for he but As Bourdieu, taleplays the the of thepro-logue thereference and forhisownsystem. scholarly In works, part point ofteninfiltrates non-narrative narrative a or discourse, wayof th title, through by sections of (suchas the analysis "cases," "lifestories," alternating grouptestimony, or as a kind running of tothetext of interviews, etc.), counterpint (quotation fragments, remarks historical of it th double.Is it individuals, etc.),inwhich plays roleofa ghostly notthen time recognize scientific to the of which then is seenlessas legitimacy narrative, remnant remnant to be eradicated), rather a functional someineradicable still but as (a within discourse? and to entertain hypothesis narrative the that is necessity theory indissociable of from theory practices, itsprecondition wellas itsproduction? as as any Thiswould, instance, for involve the value which recognizing theoretical ofthenovel, has been the principal zoo in whicheveryday have been kept since the practices of science.It wouldmeanrestoring "scientific" the of beginnings modern importance thatimmemorial which always has in consisted telling story thisor that the of gesture If werethecase,then popular wouldturn tooffer model the tale out a for practice. that scientific discourse notsimply collection rawmaterials texts be processed: and a of and to it wouldlose itsstatus a document does notknow as that whatit is saying, summoned before discourse a which whatitdoesn't. knows such Now,on thecontrary, storytelling becomesa form "know-how" of the perfectly adaptedto itsobject,no longer "other" but of and discourse a source theoretical of This knowledge, a variant scientific authority. would accountforthe alternations complicities, procedural and the and homologies social interconnections, between ofspeaking artsofdoing:thesamepractices arts and wouldbe produced in sometimes theverbalrealm, in sometimes thegestural; playing back and forth thisalternation, equally on with subtle tactics either in register, passing the ball back and forth-from to from to and chats, workday evening cooking legends the to gossip,from rusesoflivedhistory thoseofrecounted history. Does such narrativity amountto a return the "Descriptions" the classical to of difference: story tale no longerhas the the or period? There is one fundamental to as obligation approximate closelyas possiblean external "reality" technical (a for or itself an exhibit the"real."On thecontrary, of operation, instance), toaccredit by the narrative a itself from or generates fictive space and distances reality, at least
from historical "once upon a time.. . ." But this pretendsto divorceitself conjuncture: is preciselya tacticin our earliersense, a way of scoring takinga trick:the narrative or does not merelydescribesuch a "hit," it effects in its own right: one a theatrical, tightof in a rope act, a matter "timing," itcircumstances (place and time),interlocutor,skillat and displacing preexisting of a set manipulating, arranging, "placing" a givenutterance combined. relations,all are artfully
within whichtheory is gies" of Bourdieu, and tacticsin general,providetheoperations
to or the of the beingexternal theory, on itsdoorstep, "procedures" Foucault, "strate-
Practices Everyday
35
but content also part theartof"scoring": is of A narrative havecontent, that does it "in makesa detour or the times"), bythewayof a through past("the other," former in quotation(a "saying"or a proverb), orderto seize an occasionand make an is in balanceof things. Here too, discourse modification the precarious unexpected thanbywhatit tries show.Nor to moreby thewayit makesitsmoves, characterized effects rather than shouldone be takenin bywhatitsaysitdoes; storytelling produces than The rather description.is an artofspeaking. public It knows this objects-narration for art meregimmicks it to well,distinguishing from (what suffices know youto be very has able to do it)andfrom .. (what always toknow .): revelation/vulgarizationeverybody of and in narrative thesecategories thesufficient necessary is and something escapes in in understood terms thestyle thetactics question. of of better in This kindof artis easyto see at work Foucault-suspense, ellipses, quotations, the an situation, public)and of unique (the metonymies, art of conjuncture current in an of or occasions(either by epistemological political); short, artof"scoring" means erudition nottheprinciple reason historical fictions. Foucault's is immense) (obviously this which also an artofthinking of is and forhis efficacity, rather artof speaking but rhetorical and on a calculated He drawson themostsubtle procedures, doingthings. and alternation tableaux(exemplary betweenrepresentational "narratives") analytic in to produce effect conviction his chosenpublic, an of ones (theoretical distinctions) in he and the intervenes restructuring systematically displacing fields which successively an artofotherness, thesystem. this Yet remains narrative essentially practice modifying without new thelawsofconventional substituting onesfor historiographic "description" them.It does not have a discourse its own, does not speak itself, amounts of but and notthere at once), all to a practice the non-locus of da? there (fort? essentially and a set of taxonomies busily it to effaceitselfbehindan erudition pretending to Nietzschean like a balletdancerpretending be a librarian. manipulates, laughter the text. meanwhile spreads through historian's scientific model in orderto determine the We therefore need a more explicit a the of takes specific ofnarrative tactics: model to where theory practice the relationship workof Marcel We sucha modelin theimportant of tactics. willfind forem narrating in on Greece:Cunning D6tienne Jean-Pierre Vernant theconcept "metis" ancient of and in and Intelligence GreekCulture Society. as has and or D6tienne in Historian anthropologist, as much Foucault Bourdieu, fully the his workdeliberately fornarrative. does not examine talesof ancient He opted or own.He rejects break boundary the which Greeceinthenameofa valuealientotheir or on which wouldturn them into"objects"ofknowledge, into must objects knowledge of caverns which storehouse "mysteries" in a scientific investibe increased, challenges Nor real significance. does he presume the gationand waitsforit to disclosetheir revelation then existence secrets of behind these whose hidden stories, away progressive a are for Tales, stories, justifies specialposition their poems,treatises, for interpreter. what arethegesture himalready do; essentially they they they they practices: sayexactly to with that us what tell themselves Thereis thus reason couplethem no glosses signify. that of or theyare the theymean unconsciously, to determine otherreality which of whose but thousands Theyarenothing a network operations metaphorical expression. them. and or to of characters the embody forms thehits strikes be madewithin as and Within space of textual this rules, practices, in a chessgamewhosefigures,
36
de Certeau
traditions beenexpanded a properly have to historic the knows scale,D6tienne literary of made(justas thememory previous of thousands moves moves is peoplehavealready essentialin chess), but he also makesnew ones of his own, usingthispreexisting to of He the tactical and gestures, in repertory tellstories hisowninturn. re-cites great own to use You to order tellwhat what they canonly their language. want know say they All I'll all mean[ce qu'ilsveulent the about dire]? right, tellthem overagain.Questioned is of to Beethoven supposed havesatdown re-played and it. sonata, meaning a particular of as Jack the The sameis truefor traditions oralstorytelling them: Goodyhasanalyzed in whoseart consists "adjusting" newcombination the to recombination, repetition, and circumstances a specific public.64 specific does not merely this Narrative thusdoes not express represent or that practices, is to as into and move,itperforms them; this what begin understand youenter this you Greektales in orderto speak Greek realm. This is whyD6tienneends up telling Greeknarratives thecontemporary inan on his booksreperform stage practices: earlier essential He thereby them from to their effort outline museographic protects moves.65 reification exercising artwhich an has after having held by historiography forgotten long itinhigh an for has esteem, artwhose (at importance least, other cultures) anthropology fromLUvi-Strauss' to begun to rediscover, Mythologiques Bauman and Sherzer's work exploits thus the of D6tienne's namely, art storytelling. of Ethnography Speaking.66 and anthrowhat used terrain between thatintermediate historiography topractice what wins as reexamines an alienobject;and here,at last,thelove of storytelling pology and turns an evolveshis twists The tale-teller relevance. scientific exercising art of checkerboard literature of the in he Like thinking. theknight chess, describes immense likea pianist, "interprets" fables he his of ofthegambit hisnarrative repertory; byway two distinct theirveryperfomance. This performance, indeed,emphasizes through dance and foundprivileged in expression: figures whichthe Greek art of thinking of itself. the exercized thewriting thenarratives combat-in short, very by figures but of It sensenothing a collection tales.67 is bookis inthis Detienneand Vernant's inpractice," and of which somehow is devoted a form intelligence to always "submerged of in particular characterized a combination intuition, shrewdness, by anticipapractice all of a skills, tion,mental agility, senseofthebestchance, kinds supplementary and a Greekhistory, of certainmaturity experience.68 constant Extraordinarily throughout the that madefor from ideal image(and theory) Greekthought even though missing and and is to tactics itsskills, metis related everyday knacks, strategems, bythe itself, by all to know-how ruse. that rangeof conducts itgoverned, thewayfrom from description, merely this not becausethey Three features need to be retained can kinds actions, alsobecause of but servesharply differentiate from metis other to they
dans les socidtisavec ou sans6criture: transmission Bagre," la du 64Jack Goody, "Mimoire et apprentissage in L'Homme, XVII, 1 (January-March 1977), pp. 29-52; and see also Goody, The Domestication theSavage of Mind (Cambridge, 1977). 'SMarcel D6tienne, Les Jardinsd'Adonis (Paris, 1972); Dionysos mis a mort(Paris, 1977); La Cuisinedu sacrifice(in collaborationwithVernant:Paris, 1979). in of "CSee R. Bauman and J. Sherzer,eds., Explorations theEthnography Speaking(Cambridge,1974); and D. Sudnow, ed., Studiesin Social Interaction (New York, 1972). La 67D6tienne and Vernant,Les rusesde l'intelligence. MAtis des Grecs (Paris, 1974). Englishtranslation, in CunningIntelligence Greek Cultureand Society,(AtlanticHighlands,N.J., 1978). "Ibid., pp. 9-10.
Practices Everyday
37
the These are the equally serve to characterize tales in whichmetisis celebrated. and a relation metis with occasion the with threefold of itself, disguise, with paradoxical On on kairos-in order metis counts the"right moment"-the invisibility. theone hand, of its to play upon it: thisis essentially practice time.On theother hand,it seeksto its the locus.Finally, it thus perpetuate own masksand metaphors, subverting proper intoitsownact,as though in whatitperforms, without mirror reto vanishes lost any of Yet thesethreefeatures metisare equally presentit: it has no imageof itself. of a to characteristic storytelling andmaysuggest kind "supplement" D6tienne itself of and the of and Vernant: form practical by intelligence analyzed them thewayinwhich if is to havesometheoretical they analyzeitmust relationship,theartofnarrativity be as like in considered something a metis itsownright. In the balance of powerin whichit seeks to intervene, metisis the "absolute of over the othergods. It is a principle weapon," the one thatgave Zeus mastery with force. it the effect theminimum And,as we know, economy: obtaining maximum of a restriction defines wholeaesthetic: since multiplication the ofeffects a progressive by the arts meansis also,butfor different rule reasons, very which governs practical as well or as thepoeticartsofspeech, painting, song. at of metis without This principle economy really getting itsmainhelpsto frame The trick reversal or whichleads thisoperation from pointof departure its spring. of (multiplication effects) dependson the (weakness,lack of force)to itsconclusion of of characterized thegradual mediation a certain by process knowledge-aknowledge itsacquisition thenever-ending of The and accumulation itsparticular understandings. with textssee thisas a matter "age"; the"experience" theold is contrasted the of of and of is distinct instants many This knowledge made up of many "rashness" youth. no or no "locus."It statement, proper heterogeneous objects.It knows general abstract is essentially memory,69 are from temporal the a whosecontents inseparable occasions drawson a whichprovidedthem,whose singularities interweaves. it This memory them multitude events, of ever (each any circulating through without possessing ofthem and one is past,itsplace lost,itstimeshattered), weighs anticipates multiple and "the antecedent merely or possibleparticularities.70 by paths of the future" combining of a certain can into balance forces duration be introduced thecurrent Thereby temporal in order modify metis to to on time is it: counts that accumulated which favorable itas a ofprevailing theunfavorable ofspace.Yet itsmemory remains over way configurations hidden(without place specific it) until moment-the a to the "favorable" "right" or moment-in whichit can revealitself. And the manner its revelation remains of of anyeffort bury to in it is the very itself duration. The temporal, though opposite in boltof thismemory forth theopportunity. gleams lightning to to and Encyclopedic, owning metis' capacity accumulate experiences to take past in stock logical of is itsknowledge lodged thesmallest spacewithin possibilities, possible the opportunity, kairos.The latter or intothe condenses maximum the knowledge minimum time.Reducedto itsminimal format-asingle capableoftransforming act a concrete has something thephilosopher's of whole situation-this stone encyclopedia
in sense theterm, designating of as a presence pluralitytimes to of which not is limited 69"Memory" theolder to thepastalone. in from Detienne Vernant, cit.,pp. 23-25. and 7"Expressions quotesare borrowed op.
38
de Certeau
between evokesthelogical motif an identity of and aboutit! Indeed,it explicitly point is thathereextension temporal, theinstant itsconcentrais and circumference, except the the between indefinite we translate tion.Provided thus spaceintotime, coincidence and moment their of would of circumference experiences the punctual recapitulation modelfor kairos. the an theoretical offer accurate ourselves theseinitial to We may now, limiting elements, proposea schematic ofthetype "move"represented themetis, itmoves of as from initial its by representation to one of offorce-around itsterminal (IV)-maximum effect. The (I)-minimum point likethis: wouldlook something process
I II
thelessforce themoreeffect
themorememory thelesstime
Iv
III
betweenspace and time (1) A difference imposesthefollowing paradigmatic sequence: in the initial configuration space (I), the world of memory(II) intervenes the of at "rightmoment" (III), producingspatial modifications (IV). This sequence has, at the in-between time,an alien element is beginningand in the end, a spatial organization;
in and to in In I, force while II, knowledge memory diminishes, begin augment; III, time Theseincreases decreases combined and are whileinIV effects in diminishes, augment. we connections: suchthat havethefollowing inverse proportions, and -from I to II, the less forcethereis, themoreknowledge memory needed; is and there thelesstimeis needed; -from II to III, the moreknowledge memory is, will -from III to IV, the less timethereis, the moreconsiderable be the effects. in a of is as The kairos so crucial nodal of life, point allthepractices daily as well inthose theaccompanying that examine these first in indications narratives, we must "popular" detail.Yet "opportunity" subverts owndefinitions, itcan never its since always greater from conjuncture a specific or it be abstracted a detachable operation: is notsomefact in from "move"which the it itself inscribed a chain events, works of it; exploits as itfinds to distort their It in relations. willthus registered a twist be as situation produced a given of dimensions which standard the (of by the conjugation qualitatively heterogeneous of and are This wily forms). oppositions contraries contradictions onlytwo specific can with relations provided theproportional by process be discerned thesetofindicators to listed relations comparable those are mirror effects curvature, above;those (inversion, in that or reduction, spaces to be magnification) tricks perspective allow different with in that thesequence within single a dealing "opportuexcept painting: juxtaposed and space,equilibrium are dimensions rather suchheterogeneous by given time nity," of inversion relationships. the and act,etc., and involve proportional differences whichentertain inverted relations withone Among such qualitative the wouldseemto fallintotwotypes, which characterized are another, mostsignificant of kinds sequential by twodistinct reading:
Practices Everyday
39
from elsewhere producing shift and the the from one spatial stateto thenext. coming Thereis, in short, irruption time an of between states equilibrium: two of
SPACE
II
TIME
IV
III
between and (2) A difference state)and doing(a production being(an established combines thepreceding.one. distinction uponan opposiwith This transformation) plays tion betweenthe visibleand the invisible, without withit. altogether coinciding Accordingto this new axis, the following paradigmatic sequence is established: of accumgiven an initialvisibleconfiguration forces(I), as well as an invisible act ulationin the area of memory (II), a punctual on thepartof thismemory (III) in visible established order of (IV). The first produces consequences theinitial segment the seriesinvolves in invisible eludesthesurveilsituations, which existing knowledge lance of visiblepower;thisstaticsegment thenfollowed an operational is one. by the of and we Distinguishing twin-cycles being/doing visible/invisiblehavethefollowing representation:
BEING
III These combinations maythenbe schematically recapIV
I INVISIBLE I IV IIItulated as follows:
be combinations as follows: These then recapitulate schematically may

APPEARING
DOING
TIME
(I) Place
(II) Memory (III) Kairos
(IV) Effects
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the It produces, the "opportune mediates spatialtransformation. at moMemory ment"(kairos), breakwhich inaugurates a also new. the something It is thestrangeness, aliendynamic, memory it of which to the gives thepower transgress lawofthelocalspace in question:from of unfathomable ever-shifting and out there comesa sudden secrets,
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de Certeau
a "strike" to modify givenlocal order.The closureof theseriesthusdependson a visible of transformation a givenspatial organization: the precondition the latteris time of yet with its invisibleresources,time with its alien laws which,in a surpriseblow, itself, fromthe proprietary distribution space itself. of snatchessomething This schema, which is found in many narratives, would be something like their It can take on comic form,when memory-at the rightmoment"minimal unity." Good suddenlyreversesa situation,afterthe fashionof: "But ... you are myfather! This pirouette due to the return temporality is of a quasiheavens, mydaughter!" upon of spatial distribution characterswhichfailed to take it into account. There is also a of hierarchical order : variant,in whichthe resurgence the past disrupts mystery-story from of anothertime,a "So he's the murderer!"Miracles also fallintothispattern: out time profoundly risesa "god" endowedwiththe characteristics "other," theresuddenly of in of memory, silentencyclopedia individual a acts,a figure which, religious narratives, that"popular" memory thosewho have no space or land, and so of faithfully represents of have time-"Be patient!"Numerousare thevariants suchrecourseto an alien world, willchangean established whichcan be expectedto deliverthe blow that order.Yet all such variants,enlarged into symbolicand narrative projections,may well be but the of shadows cast by thepractices dailylifeas theysearchforthechanceto transform their loci by means of memory. Still a finalpoint, the most decisive one, mustbe clarified: how is timearticulated to its In upon organizedspace? How does it use the"opportunity" effect break-through? of into a space whichis alreadyan short,how can we thinkthe implanation memory of the of organizedwhole? This is themoment tactics, moment art. For theimplantation itself: are is neither"localized" nordetermined memory by opportunities "grasped,"not thatis, byexternal in created. They are presented a conjuncture, circumstances which by that only the trainedeye can perceive the elementsof a new configuration mightbe detail. One finaltouch,and thetrick of by wrought the intervention one supplementary in to forharmony be reestablished the realmof is will be turned:only a trifle lacking make preciousindeed, whichthesecircumstances suddenly practice,a scrap, a remnant of to odds and ends we can expect the invisible treasury memory supply.Yet whatever intoa configuration it this selectedfrom storehouse, willhave to be inserted the fragment own unstablemakeshift imposed fromwithout,beforeit makes the latterover into its it harmony. In the form memorytakes in practical activity, lacks any ready-made to its according eventsorganizationwhichcould be applied as such; itmarshalls forces it into opportunities: findsa home onlyin chance encounters, artfully surprises turning and in the space of the other. does Like those birdsthatalwayslay their eggsin thenestsof otherspecies,memory from whichis not its own. It receivesits formand its implantation its work in a locus whichgivesa new element even ifthemissing externalcircumstances, detail,thisminute to the whole plot, is its own invention.Its mobilizationis inseparable from sense fromits alterabilityalteration;indeed, memorydraws its verycapacityto intervene itself feature:it forms mobile, adaptable, withouta fixedlocus. It has thispermanent whichit now loses fromtheother(fromcircumstance), (and its "capital") by emerging change,both in itself(since its (this being no more than a memory):whencea twofold of is modification thecondition itsown exercise)and ofitsobject,retained onlywhenitis and for wastesawaywhenit loses thiscapacity alter-ation can onlybe lost. Thus memory
Practices Everyday
41
from constructed events of that independent it,intheexpectation something happen may will from which be different andaliento this Farfrom either shrine the or present. being a belief possibilities vigilantly inwaitfor in theashcanofthepast,itthrives and lies upon them. in of to the of are Equivalent therealm time what "arts" warfare tospace,the"art"of a capacity inhabit spaceoftheother to the without it, memory develops possessing andto thisalteration spacewithout of in itself theprocess. Suchforce notthe is exploit losing same as power(although narratives be usedin thelatter's rather has it its service): may often beentermed drawn from or collective individual "authority"-whatever, memory, or a oforder place,a transition the or to "authorizes" enablesa reversal, transformation a "metaphor" practice for for or discourse. Hencethediscerning different, qualitatively in use of "authorities" all popular traditions. comesfrom another Memory place,it is it "besideitself," can dis-place. tactics itsartdepend these The of on and properties, on In conclusion, wouldliketo emphasize its disquieting I of itsprocesome familiarity. which those ineveryday theplay alteraof life: dures, especially organize "opportunities" the metonymic of singularities, as a kindof generaleffect, an tion, and, practice and mobility. unsettling wily is not (1) Practical memory controlled a multiple by playof alter-ation, merely becauseitis constituted marked external and and in encounters, consists a collection by of thesuccessive blazonsand tattoos theother, also becauseeventhose of but invisible are The of onlyby newcircumstances. dynamics this inscriptions called back to light with of is "recall"are consistent those theoriginal indeed, inscription. Perhaps, memory but a body whoseimprint nothing this"recall"or "call" oftheother, already overprints altered it.Then,at certain this and secret, originary contacts, deeper, unconsciously by would"come backout." Memory in anycase played circumstances,a is as writing by its to of it Not pianoyields sounds thetouch hands: is a senseoftheother. unsurprisingly it of or societies oflove-and then, is developed relationship-whether"traditional" by in of locus.It does autonomization space and of theproper atrophies theprogressive more thanregister, replies, it untilthatmoment when,its fragile lost, mobility and henceforth forfresh unfit it its overand over. alter-ation,can onlyrepeat first replies This system responsible of alter-ation moment moment, delicate the organizes, by touchwhereby intervention a setofcircumstances an into is achieved. opportunity, The seizedon thewing, thus is the ofa into a essentially transformation combat a response, "reversal" that of which anticipated was without having ever beenforeseen: the surprise due and and into is or inscription toan event, rapid fleeting,reversed transformed speech and of are from a gesture.Tit fortat: the liveliness aptness the retort indissociable on instants time, from vigilance of a and which must all the be dependence thesuccessive sincethere no proper is them. we ourselves from placein which can protect greater In it it (2) Responseis singular, system happens, is butone particular. whatever detail-a gesture, singleword-yet so appropriate the whole a that supplementary situation thereby is reversed. whatelse couldmemory expected Yet be to completely
furnish? is made up of nothing suchdetails,ofbrokenpieces,particular It but fragments: such are memories.Each one, whenitemergesagainsta surrounding is darkness, partof a whole whichhas vanished.Its luminosity thatof metonymy. is Whatis left a painting of is onlythisdeep blue, a deliciouswound;of a body,onlythisbrightness theeyes,or this in have the forceof demonstratives: grainywhitenessbeneath a curl. Such particularities
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de Certeau
thisman bentover in the distance.., thatsmellwhosesourcewe could no longer in which function memory as intense locate... Chiselled details, singularities, already an to the in do they whencircumstances them opportunityintervene: sametiming give the relation between concrete a detail a conjuncture, and bothoccasions, sameartful the of latter as of or alternately thetrace a pastevent, as theproduction somenew figuring harmony. its are is such (3) The strangest aspectof memory doubtless mobility, thatdetails form neveridentical themselves: to nevermereobjects(in which theycouldnot be the nor retained),nor fragments (since theyat once furnish missing background), nor fresh totalities are (sincethey notself-sufficient), evenstableentities (sinceevery alters has of remembrance them).The "space" ofthis placeless mobility something the of a world. disembodied (but subtlety a cybernetic Probably thereference provides mere not is model thearts practice, of of or memory theoriginal description, an explanation) to with of thatmetis which seizesitskairos restore, placesinvested organized to power, of itself. thepeculiar pertinence time into is in seemsthesameinthestructure which introduced detail the that Everything and its Those contemporary reality changesits wholedynamic modifies equilibrium. scientific which reinsert into those memory its"socialframework,"7' clerical analyses Frances of Yates speaksin TheArtofMemory,72 techniques theMiddleAges ofwhich the and which of into memory an by prepared modem spatialization time artfully turning with architectural was detours, memory's composition-neither able to cometo terms the of althoughboth demonstrate ways in whichthe kairos-instant indiscretion, of and discourse, thestrategic by poison-has beenmastered thespatialization scientific of reasonsforthisform control. Scientific constitutiona proper of locuswriting-the overand overagainreturns to thenormality an observable readable of and temporality the maintenance spacewilleliminate No of time's scandals. system. surprises: careful return andoveragain, over andsurreptitiously, not and Nonetheless, they noiselessly leastwithin very this scientific itself: merely theform thepractices not in of of activity lifewhich on existing evenwithout their owndiscourse, also in thesly but everyday go and gossipy of To youwouldhaveto do more practices everyday storytelling. see this thananalyzetheforms repetitive or structures suchstories of that (although is also a in is know-how atwork these where thefeatures of all stories, task):a practical necessary the"artofmemory" itself be detected. needto makean inventory themoves can We of which and tricks transform legendary the stories a collectivitytheprivate of or conversations dailylifeintoso many of as the havefor the "opportunities"; is so often case,they mostpartbeenstudied therhetoricians. wemay hazard hypothesis a starting a as Still, by for that art narrates arts practices, tactics, the and the of study: inthat which point future in reality is thelatter it which at work, are and theartof dailylifecan be dailylife, in of witnessed thetalestoldaboutit.The practice D6tienne Vernant-totellthe and of which their of is objectintheform stories-isan story thatlabyrinthine intelligence of which at one andthesametime art is its one, exemplary a discursive practice history and itsdiscourse.
This is an old story. Aristotle himself,scarcely a tight-ropewalker, enjoyed of losing himselfin this most subtle and labyrinthine all formsof discourse.He had
7'See Maurice Halbwachs, Les cadres sociaux de la mjmoire(The Hague, 1975). 72See Frances Yates, The Artof Memory.
Practices Everyday
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I more at olderandlonelier, cometo likestories arrived theage ofthemetis: I grow "as and more."73 His justification apt; like the agingFreud,he had a connaisseur's was to admiration thetactthat for reinvents and the usessurprise do so: harmony for artthat "In a sense,the loverof myths a loverof wisdom, a myth madeup of many for is is "74 astonishments. and Translated Fredric Jameson CarlLovitt by
ed. 668. 7"Aristotle, 1886, Fragmenta, Rose,Teubner, fragment A, Metaphysics, 2, 982 b 18. "4Aristotle,
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De Certeau Michel Oppositional Practices Everyday Life

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On the Oppositional Practices of Everyday Life Author(s): Michel De Certeau, Fredric Jameson and Carl Lovitt Reviewed work(s):

Practices Everyday of On The Oppositional Life

de 29Le m6tier sociologue, op. cit., pp. 290-299.

Forms of ReligiousLife and Freud's Totemand Taboo. They Durkheim's Elementary

of to of attractive the"observers man";43and,on theother hand,that the literature;42

constanttheme in Freud, althoughthe statusof this"knowledge" remainstheoretically undecided.

and a (practical)action-the very an of tactlinksa (moral) freedom, (aesthetic) creation,

in . "" Whateverhis examples, Kant organizeshis demonstration the

within whichtheory is gies" of Bourdieu, and tacticsin general,providetheoperations

to or the of the beingexternal theory, on itsdoorstep, "procedures" Foucault, "strate-

III These combinations maythenbe schematically recapIV

I INVISIBLE I IV IIItulated as follows:

be combinations as follows: These then recapitulate schematically may

(II) Memory (III) Kairos

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