This book is a publication in Swiss Seminars, a subseries of Progress in Mathematics. It is an expanded version of the notes from a seminar on intersection cohomology theory, which met at the University of Bern, Switzerland, in the spring of 1983.

This book is an expanded version of the notes from a seminar on intersection cohomology theory, which met at the University of Bern, Switzerland, in the spring of 1983. This volume supplies an introduction to the piecewise linear and sheaf-theoretic versions of that theory as developed by M. Goresky and R. MacPherson in Topology 19 (1980), and in Inventiones Mathematicae 72 (1983). While some familiarity with algebraic topology and sheaf theory is assumed, the notes include a self-contained account of further material on constructibility, derived categories, Verdier duality, biduality, and on stratified spaces, which is used in the second paper but not found in standard texts.

Provides a self-contained introduction to the theory

Inhalt
to Piecewise Linear Intersection Homology.- From PL to Sheaf Theory (Rock to Bach).- A Sample Computation of Intersection Homology.- Structures de Pseudovariété sur les Espaces Analytiques Complexes.- Sheaf Theoretic Intersection Cohomology.- Les Foncteurs de la Categorie des Faisceaux Associes a Une Application Continue.- Witt Space Cobordism Theory (after P. Siegel).- Lefschetz Fixed Point Theorem and Intersection Homology.- Problems and Bibliography on Intersection Homology.