Understanding Lived Experiences of Food Insecurity through a Paraliminality Lens

Abstract

This article examines lived experiences of food insecurity in the United Kingdom as a liminal phenomenon. Our research is set within the context of austerity measures, welfare reform and the precarity experienced by increasing numbers of individuals. Drawing on original qualitative data, we highlight diverse food insecurity experiences as transitional, oscillating between phases of everyday food access to requiring supplementary food, which are both empowering and reinforcing of food insecurity. We make three original contributions to existing research on food insecurity. First, we expand the scope of empirical research by conceptualising food insecurity as liminal. Second, we illuminate shared social processes and practices that intersect individual agency and structure, co-constructing people’s experiences of food insecurity. Third, we extend liminality theory by conceptualising paraliminality, a hybrid of liminal and liminoid phenomena that co-generates a persistent liminal state. Finally, we highlight policy implications that go beyond short-term emergency food access measures.

Hunger Bonds: Boundaries and Bridges in the Charitable Food Provision Field

“…Taking these positions resonates with scholarly work criticising aspects of the CFP sector: how food banks can give rise to stigma and feelings of shame and embarrassment among users (Garthwaite, 2016b;Purdam et al, 2016); how increasing bureaucracy in the Trussell Trust (e.g. the use of referrals) can distance claimants from operators (May et al, 2019); how pantries, while proposing a less stigmatising model of support, are de facto part of the same shadow welfare state based on food transfers (Moraes et al, 2021); and the moral tension arising between the food waste and food poverty agendas when framed as two sides of the same coin (Arcuri, 2019;Caplan, 2017). Adopting a field perspective helps us understand how these stands relate to each other as part of the same, meso-level, sociological order.…”

“…Possibly owing to the advocacy of the Trussell Trust – the largest and most powerful UK food bank network – discourses about food insecurity and parcel distribution flooded the media (Knight et al, 2018), and the role of other food support initiatives has been partially neglected (but see Hirth et al, 2022; Moraes et al, 2021; Oncini, 2022a). In fact, next to Trussell Trust food banks, several thousand independent food banks, pantries and warm meal providers work in the food assistance sector (Lambie-Mumford and Loopstra, 2020), albeit in different guises and with different views about the best ways to provide food support to families in need.…”

Holding on or letting go: Inheritance as a liminal experience

“…Finally, we employed a writing strategy that focused mainly upon key narrative themes derived from the findings, consistent with previous studies (Wheeler, 2012). During this data analysis stage, we sought to highlight the most relevant and exceptional elements (Bazeley, 2013) focussing particularly on narratives of inheritance, their transitions and flows and their contributions to liminality theory (Moraes et al, 2021). We sought to achieve interpretive quality by considering the study’s theoretical frame and contributions, comparing and discussing understandings, respecting participants’ storytelling and providing evidence of the emerging interpretations (Moraes et al, 2015).…”

Social supermarkets, nutritional implications and healthy eating: exploration of members and their views

“…Food insecurity is the inability to access or afford sufficient quantities of healthy food to meet nutritional needs 1–3 . It is identified both as an indicator of wider poverty and a marker of the social and political construction of poverty 4 . It has been rising in the UK since 2010, but particularly since 2020, 5 and is estimated to affect over 16% of all households, and over 25% of those with children 6 .…”

“…[1][2][3] It is identified both as an indicator of wider poverty and a marker of the social and political construction of poverty. 4 It has been rising in the UK since 2010, but particularly since 2020, 5 and is estimated to affect over 16% of all households, and over 25% of those with children. 6 Inflation is higher in the poorest than the richest 10% of the population (10.9% vs. 7.9% in April 2022), 7 with highest 12-month inflation rises in the bottom three income deciles in October 2022.…”