The focus of this article is the life and work of the French thinker Michel de Certeau, here presented as a philosopher of special interest for nursing. Although in some countries he is relatively unknown, international authors from scientific disciplines regard his texts as a fundamental source in the opening of new intellectual perspectives on current global problems. Some nurses have also considered his ideas as a useful aid for reflecting on their professional activities, and their most important research is (...) cited. Over these pages, we also examine how Certeau's work can enrich nursing philosophy in regard to three specific issues: resistance practices in nursing in the face of pressure from health institutions; the social configuration of nursing knowledge; and the importance of the body in current nursing practice. (shrink)

This article argues that de Certeau’s understanding of walking as the archetypal transhuman practice of making the city habitable cannot hold in a post-human world. By concentrating on the practices of driving, I argue that other experiences of the city can have an equal validity. In other words, de Certeau’s work on everyday life in the city needs to be reworked in order to take into account the rise of automobility. The bulk of this article is devoted to exploring how (...) that goal might be achieved, concentrating in particular on how new knowledge like software and ergonomics has become responsible for a large-scale spatial reordering of the city which presages an important change in what counts as making the city habitable. (shrink)

ABSTRACTIn recent years, the reflection on intercultural education has focused on the importance of managing everyday situations in intercultural contexts. This focus is generally recognized as fundamental for the shift from the perspective of multiculturalism to a more interculturalist approach. An example of the interculturalist turn can be found in the EU document White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue ‘Living Together As Equals in Dignity’, which promotes the intercultural approach in education. In this article, referring to the later works by Michel (...) de Certeau I will propose a theorization of the concept of everyday life, taken for granted as self-evident by the EU document and by most of the promoters of interculturalism. Furthermore, I will propose some possible deepening of it. Moreover, I will suggest that through the concept of everyday proposed by de Certeau it is possible to think of more creative ways to deal with cultural diversity. (shrink)