Rebecca O’Connell & Julia Brannen 
Families and Food in Hard Times 
European comparative research

Food is fundamental to health and social participation, yet food poverty has increased in the global North. Adopting a realist ontology and taking a comparative case approach, Families and Food in Hard Times addresses the global problem of economic retrenchment and how those most affected are those with the least resources.

Based on research carried out with low-income families with children aged 11-15, this timely book examines food poverty in the UK, Portugal and Norway in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis. It examines the resources to which families have access in relation to public policies, local institutions and kinship and friendship networks, and how they intersect. Through ‘thick description’ of families’ everyday lives, it explores the ways in which low income impacts upon practices of household food provisioning, the types of formal and informal support on which families draw to get by, the provision and role of school meals in children’s lives, and the constraints upon families’ social participation involving food.

Providing extensive and intensive knowledge concerning the conditions and experiences of low-income parents as they endeavour to feed their families, as well as children’s perspectives of food and eating in the context of low income, the book also draws on the European social science literature on food and families to shed light on the causes and consequences of food poverty in austerity Europe.

Praise for Families and Food in Hard Times

‘The ambitious scope of Families and Food in Hard Times – the culmination of a £1 million European Research Council grant – is matched only by the quality, depth and detail of the accounts it describes…. [a] considerable contribution to understanding the material, social, emotional consequences of food poverty’
Sociology

‘A valuable contribution to trans-national debates on food policy and social policy as well as a key addition to academic literature on poverty as experienced by mothers and children. …It will greatly contribute to academic understanding and provides useful policy insights which should be heeded by policy makers and those in power across Europe.’
Critical Social Policy

‘Original, rigorous, empathic. This is a ground-breaking contribution to transnational food and social policy research, which gives voice to the lived experiences of children and low-income mothers unable to feed their families. Containing moving testimony, this book is essential reading for changing public policy to the progressive realisation of the right to food for all, even in Norway.’
Graham Riches, University of British Columbia

‘Using the lens of food insecurity, this sensitive, fine-grained, cross-national and multi-tiered study offers important insights into poverty as experienced by children and mothers. It represents a valuable contribution to the academic literature but should also be read by politicians, policy-makers and practitioners.’
Ruth Lister, Loughborough University

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