L’autorità in questione. Per un’analisi della tarda modernità in Michel de Certeau

The aim of this paper is to analyse some reflections developed by the French author Michel de Certeau about the coming of the late-modern society. Even though de Certeau cannot be considered primarily a sociologist, his thought can certainly stimulate new theoretical and empirical studies at political, economic, social and cultural level. In particular, the paper focuses on the question concerning authority in society, as interpreted by de Certeau in two articles written in 1969 and 1973. On the one hand, a generalized lack of credibility can be identified more and more in relation to many key social authorities, such as political parties, trade unions, enterprises, schools, universities and churches. On the other hand, this lack of credibility may lead to increase the spread of critical phenomena, such as social exclusion and social violence. The paper, then, analyses the specific conception of authority as proposed by de Certeau, which can be conceived as a form of always fragile and unstable coordination between representations and individual and collective beliefs.