PRECARIOUSNESS AND FOOD: SOCIAL AND SUPPORT NETWORKS IN SOCIAL CANTEENS

• Main Author: Ursula Verthein
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Josely Correa Koury 2018-09-01
• Series: Demetra
• Subjects: asistencia alimentaria. pobreza. relaciones familiares. españa.
• Online Access: https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/demetra/article/view/33525

The current study was carried out in the economic crisis context that has been affecting Europe and, consequently, Spain since 2008. Based on the ethnographic approach, it analyzes the reconfiguration of social networks focused on supporting people who seek welfare services such as social canteens to get food in Barcelona City (Spain). We mainly analyzed the functions and responsibilities taken by social canteens after the old aid-reference bonds (family and friends) of people who use these centers as food resource weakened due to the impoverishment process they went through. The aim is to understand to what extent public policies focused on Right to Food can and should take into consideration the social (and affective) dimension in their approaches and actions, since, in many cases, welfare service centers, and people who work in them, become reference for that matter. Based on our analysis, although sometimes social canteens promote social relations among people using their services, they do not always value this matter in a comprehensive way, fact that opens room for issues that need to bediscussed.   DOI: 10.12957/demetra.2018.33525  PRECARIOUSNESS AND FOOD: SOCIAL AND SUPPORT NETWORKS IN SOCIAL CANTEENS