Das Elend der Welt

"Don't pity, don't laugh, don't despise, but understand" - this is the credo of this extraordinary study under the direction of Pierre Bourdieu. This comprehensive sociological masterpiece is now available for the first time as an abridged study edition. People who are otherwise neither spoken to nor heard speak about their everyday lives, their hopes and frustrations, injuries and suffering. When viewed together, these images of life and society provide a ruthless x-ray of contemporary society, which is marked by increasing pressure of competition, structural mass unemployment, social disintegration, and the social marginalization of ever broader sections of the population.