social suffering

is a form of suffering which refers not to the singular experiences of individual biographies but rather to certain generic types of subjective experience associated with class and other systemic inequalities.

a collective not an individual category. It refers not to the singular experiences of individual biographies but rather to certain generic types of subjective experience associated with class and other systemic inequalities. Suffering is, of course, a ubiquitous feature of human existence, marking the lives of all individuals at some point or another, but social suffering is what Bourdieu terms 'positional' rather than existential. It arises from the normalized structural violence that is routinely perpetuated by unequal social orders. Suggering in this positional sense is not evenly distributed around society because of the link with material inequality. Indeed, the reason why Bourdeu uses the epithet social is precisely to highlight these collective, systemic aspects of the experience and what that may tell us about the nature of inequality and domination'

is when an individual perceives pain threatening the activities of daily life, but then resists that threat.

For Kleinman, suffering occurs when an individual perceives pain to threaten the activities of daily life, but then resist that threat. '

social suffering, n.All

social suffering