The Practice of Everyday Life (by Michel de Certeau)

The Practice of Everyday Life by Michel de Certeau explores how people navigate and interpret urban spaces and cultural routines in their daily routines. It highlights that individuals creatively adapt and reinterpret existing systems—like shopping, commuting, or consuming media—making them their own. Instead of seeing society’s structures as controlling, de Certeau emphasizes the active role of ordinary people in shaping their experiences through tactics and practices that often go unnoticed. In essence, the book shows how daily actions reveal power, resistance, and ingenuity in the ways we make sense of the world around us.