The book is a collection of essays, weaving together psychoanalysis, political theory and art. Ranging from the discussion of Freud, Foucault, Žižek and Agamben, through revealing analyses of politics and memory in contemporary Poland, to a discussion of Foks, Kozłowski, and Opałka, the author attempts to develop a new style of humanistic thinking.

The book surveys changes in the occupational structure, income distribution, value systems, lifestyles and attitudes which have spurred the rise of the middle class in Poland after the political turn of 1989. The emergent middle class based on the intelligentsia, executives and owners is examined for locally distinct features and future prospects.

The way sociology frames the relation between formality and informality has changed. The book proposes a typology: the sociology of informally embedded formality, the sociology of formally embedded informality, the sociology of the interaction between formality/informality and the sociology of the emergence and transformation of formality/informality.