In this translation, Michel de Certeau anticipates current debates surrounding multicultralism and social diversity, providing a prescient critique of identity politics. De Certeau considers the idea of culture itself, unveiling the specific political and social conflicts culture is designed to conceal. He then looks at culture from several methodological and theoretical points of view, positioning his ideal of culture in the plural in opposition to an exclusivist notion of culture as "the best that has been thought and said."