Abstract

ORTEGA, Francisco A. Michel de Certeau and the Social Sciences: a language of alterity. Mem. Soc. [online]. 2016, vol.20, n.41, pp.55-70. ISSN 0122-5197.  https://doi.org/10.11144/Javeriana.mys20-41.mccs.

Three axes of thinking can be found in Michel de Certeau's oeuvre. These three axes remain a constant in his work on theology, historical interpretation, sociology, political anthropology and psychoanalytical thinking. In the first place, Certeau shows a recurring concern for the places and modes of knowledge production. Secondly, Certeau constantly looks for and examines what he calls the «arts of doing», that is, the modes of everyday consumption, particularly, the ways ordinary citizens receive, live, transform and resist hegemonic interpellations from the State, the productive apparatus and the mass media. Thirdly, Certeau develops a sustained reflection on the question of otherness, its place in society, its social production in and through the act of interpretation, and the ethical and political demands placed by it. The essay explores in depth the reach and nature of this last axis and its implication for the practice and future of the humanities and the social sciences.

Keywords : otherness; heterology; politics of difference; social sciences and humanities; the arts of doing; tactics.

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