Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behavior are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture. In exploring the public meaning of ingeniously defended private meanings, de Certeau draws brilliantly on an immense theoretical literature in analytic philosophy, linguistics, sociology, semiology, and anthropology–to speak of an apposite use of imaginative literature.

This social history of “making do” is based on microhistories that move from the private sphere (of dwelling, cooking, and homemaking) to the public (the experience of living in a neighborhood). The second volume of this magnum opus delves even deeper than did the first into the subtle tactics of resistance and private practices that make living a subversive art.

French edition

L’invention du quotidien, I, arts de faire, Gallimard, 1980

L’invention du quotidien, II, habiter, cuisiner, Gallimard, 1994

English edition

Translated by Steven Rendall

Publisher University of California Press, 1984

ISBN 0520236998, 9780520236998

229 pages

English edition, Volume 2: Living & Cooking

With Luce Giard and Pierre Mayol

Translated by Timothy J. Tomasik

University of Minnesota Press, 1998

ISBN 0816628777, 9780816628773

292 pages

Wikipedia (EN)

Publisher (EN, Vol. 1)

Publisher (EN, Vol. 2)

Google books (EN, Vol. 1)

The Practice of Everyday Life (English, trans. Steven Rendall, 1984, updated on 2013-9-28)

The Practice of Everyday Life, Vol. 2: Living and Cooking (English, trans. Timothy J. Tomasik, 1998, added on 2013-9-28)

A invenção do cotidiano (Portuguese, trans. Ephraim Ferreira Alves, Third edition, 1998, added on 2013-9-28)

La invención de lo cotidiano. 1 Artes de hacer (Spanish, trans. Alejandro Pescador, 2000, added on 2013-9-28)

La invención de lo cotidiano. 2 Habitar, cocinar (Spanish, trans. Alejandro Pescador, 1999, added on 2013-9-28)

Invencija svakodnevnice (Croatian, trans. Gordana Popovic, 2002, added on 2013-9-28)