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Welfare Convergence, Bureaucracy, and Moral Distancing at the Food Bank
Author(s) -
May Jon,
Williams Andrew,
Cloke Paul,
Cherry Liev
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/anti.12531
Subject(s) - bureaucracy , ideology , distancing , welfare , shadow (psychology) , voucher , convergence (economics) , welfare state , state (computer science) , poverty , variety (cybernetics) , public economics , public administration , sociology , economics , public relations , political science , political economy , law , economic growth , politics , accounting , medicine , psychology , disease , covid-19 , pathology , algorithm , artificial intelligence , computer science , psychotherapist , infectious disease (medical specialty)
This paper seeks to extend geographic thinking on the changing constitution of the UK welfare state, suggesting the need to supplement ideas of the “shadow state” with an analysis of the blurring of the bureaucratic practices through which welfare is now delivered by public, private and third sector providers alike. Focusing on the growing convergence of the bureaucratic practices of benefits officials and food bank organisations, we interrogate the production of moral distance that characterise both. We reveal the ideological values embedded in voucher and referral systems used by many food banks, and the ways in which these systems further stigmatise and exclude people in need of support. Contrasting these practices with those of a variety of “ethical insurgents”, we suggest that food banks are sites of both the further cementing and of challenge to the injustices of Britain's new welfare apparatus.