The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary Society

by Pierre Bourdieu, Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson (Translation)

Confined in their governmental ivory towers, their actions largely dictated by public opinion polls, politicians and state officials are all too often oblivious to the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. These persons, who often experience so much hardship in their lives, have few ways to make themselves heard and are obliged either to protest outside official frameworks or remain locked in the silence of their despair. Under the direction of Pierre Bourdieu, France’s foremost sociologist, a team of 22 researchers spent three years studying and analyzing the new forces of social suffering that characterize contemporary societies—the daily suffering of those denied the means of acquiring a socially dignified existence and of those poorly adjusted to the rapidly changing conditions of their lives. Social workers, teachers, policemen, factory workers, white-collar clerks, farmers, artisans, shopkeepers—no one seems to be immune from the frustrations of today’s life, not to speak of the institutions of the family, work, and education. The book can be read like a series of short stories, which a steel worker who was laid off after 20 years and now struggles to support his family on unemployment benefits and a part-time job; a trade unionist who finds his goals undermined by the changing nature of work; a family from Algeria living in a housing tract on the outskirts of Paris who must cope with pervasive forms of racism; and a schoolteacher confronted with urban violence. Reading these stories enables one to register these people’s lives and the forms of social suffering that infuse them. The original publication of this book was a major social and political event in France, where it topped the best-seller list and triggered a widespread public debate on inequality, politics, and civic solidarity. It offers not only a distinctive method for analyzing social life, but another way of practicing politics.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Academic, Philosophy, France, Anthropology, Politics

656 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

Bourdieu pioneered investigative frameworks and terminologies such as cultural, social, and symbolic capital, and the concepts of habitus, field or location, and symbolic violence to reveal the dynamics of power relations in social life. His work emphasized the role of practice and embodiment or forms in social dynamics and worldview construction, often in opposition to universalized Western philosophical traditions. He built upon the theories of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Edmund Husserl, Georges Canguilhem, Karl Marx, Gaston Bachelard, Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, Erwin Panofsky, and Marcel Mauss. A notable influence on Bourdieu was Blaise Pascal, after whom Bourdieu titled his Pascalian Meditations.

Bourdieu rejected the idea of the intellectual "prophet", or the "total intellectual", as embodied by Sartre. His best known book is Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, in which he argues that judgments of taste are related to social position. His argument is put forward by an original combination of social theory and data from surveys, photographs and interviews, in an attempt to reconcile difficulties such as how to understand the subject within objective structures. In the process, he tried to reconcile the influences of both external social structures and subjective experience on the individual (see structure and agency).

Reviews

[Sean McCormack]

Very enjoyable discussion on the role of the sociologist. His analogy of the midwife does come with some issues but reinforces the idea that sociology’s aim is to bring happiness.

Doxa is a fun word to say also n will use it non stop

[Mohammed]

Pierre Bourdieu discovered the hidden contrarieties of the educational foundation discourse
and the anxiety of the fast changes of professions
I think that his ideas on the gaps of modern democracy context are so important.
He implied to the necessary of using the existent margin of freedom, and effective
of the partial facts of contemporary sociology.
In this book he supported the dialogue style, and he was brilliant in the
Cultural analyzing of some gestures, or some inspiring words of the ostracized students in the social attitudes.
I think this book is so important for cultural scholars, and educationists.
Dr. Mohammed Sameer Abd Elsalam

[Ty]

Extremely dense writing but the content is phenomenal.

I had never read ethnography before so I didn't know what I was in for but I'm glad I made it to the end. I recommend having an advance dictionnary nearby but never put the subject matter past you, one of the author's fundamental beliefs is that anyone can access intellectualism, regardless of path (i.e. formal education is just one way and as he discusses in Homo academous, it is filled with racist and otherwise problematic components.)

[Sang Vinh]

La description sociologique de plusieurs sociétés dont les parties prenantes ont chacun leur mots à dire. Un livre dont les thématiques sont encore d'actualité, avec des témoignages parlants, un discours clair et pas de jugement ... je conseille

[Reading]

《世界的苦难》（法）皮埃尔·布尔迪厄。

终于把这本分为上下两册，总字数90.3万字的书看完了！！！是我目前看过的最厚的书了……

[Kaidi Pan]

It was a painful and yearning read.

[Floer]

Erhellend und ernüchternd, wenn in einem dreißig Jahre alten Buch die Bildungschancen migrantischer Jugendlicher schlecht und Schulen unterfinanziert sind, die Bauern gegen die EU-Agrarpolitik demonstrieren und die Leute anfangen, den Front National zu wählen ohne genau benennen zu können oder zu wollen, wie das genau zu einer Verbesserung führen soll.

Das Buch überzeugt mit seinen gut kuratierten und konstrastreich gegenüber gestellen Interviews und Portraits, die verdeutlichen "die Hölle, das sind die anderen", oder viel mehr die sozialen Logiken und Zwänge in denen sie stecken. Einige der Schlüsse, die man als Leser aus dieser Gegenüberstellung zieht, wirken aber schon so wie Allgemeinplätze, dass ich mir an der ein oder anderen Stelle ein paar Interviews weniger und dafür punktuell vertiefte Untersuchungen der angedeuteten Zusammenhänge gewünscht hätte.

[Pony]

enormous? yes.
important? pretty much.
boring as sin? yup.
has anyone read the whole thing? probably not.

[lunalovesbooks]

todavía ni me lo he terminado pero menuda mierda más grande, maldigo a mi profesor de sociología que nos ha mandado semejante aburrimiento de lectura