The incompatibility of system and lifeworld understandings of food insecurity and the provision of food aid in an English city

TY - JOUR

T1 - The incompatibility of system and lifeworld understandings of food insecurity and the provision of food aid in an English city

AU - Power, Madeleine Sarah

AU - Small, Neil

AU - Doherty, Bob

AU - Pickett, Kate

N1 - © The Author(s) 2018

PY - 2018/7/9

Y1 - 2018/7/9

N2 - We report qualitative findings from a study in a multi-ethnic, multi-faith city with high levels of deprivation. Primary research over 2 years consisted of three focus groups and 18 semi-structured interviews with food insecurity service providers followed by focus groups with 16 White British and Pakistani women in or at risk of food insecurity. We consider food insecurity using Habermas’s distinction between the system and lifeworld. We examine system definitions of the nature of need, approved food choices, the reification of selected skills associated with household management and the imposition of a construct of virtue. While lifeworld truths about food insecurity include understandings of structural causes and recognition that the potential of social solidarity to respond to them exist, they are not engaged with by the system. The gap between system rationalities and the experiential nature of lay knowledge generates individual and collective disempowerment and a corrosive sense of shame.

AB - We report qualitative findings from a study in a multi-ethnic, multi-faith city with high levels of deprivation. Primary research over 2 years consisted of three focus groups and 18 semi-structured interviews with food insecurity service providers followed by focus groups with 16 White British and Pakistani women in or at risk of food insecurity. We consider food insecurity using Habermas’s distinction between the system and lifeworld. We examine system definitions of the nature of need, approved food choices, the reification of selected skills associated with household management and the imposition of a construct of virtue. While lifeworld truths about food insecurity include understandings of structural causes and recognition that the potential of social solidarity to respond to them exist, they are not engaged with by the system. The gap between system rationalities and the experiential nature of lay knowledge generates individual and collective disempowerment and a corrosive sense of shame.

KW - Critical theory

KW - Food aid

KW - Food banks

KW - Food insecurity

KW - Religion

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049639029&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11266-018-0018-7

DO - 10.1007/s11266-018-0018-7

M3 - Article

SN - 0957-8765

VL - 31

SP - 907

EP - 922

JO - VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations

JF - VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations

ER -