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Facing hunger, framing food banks, imaging austerity

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Strong, S 

Abstract

This paper analyses the scopic regime established by images of UK food banks. Analysis of three popular images of "Food Bank Britain" reveal the persistence of historical practices for visualising hunger—namely, the dominance of faciality, infantilization of the hungry, and erasure of geographical context from visual frames. Drawing on the work of Judith Butler, this paper demonstrates how such images serve to 'frame' austerity—where framing describes the link between the bounding of the literal edges of an image and the epistemic, affective frames for understanding and feeling austerity that are mobilised. Rather than attempting to portray "real" images of food banks, this scopic regime is instead marked by the production of ocular affects that structure the feelings of the viewer towards certain political ends. It is concluded that this framing of hunger denies the political life of food bank users, a process that in turn effaces the radical questions necessary to address the causes of hunger at a time of austerity.

Description

Keywords

Austerity, food banks, framing, hunger, ocular affect, scopic regime

Journal Title

Social and Cultural Geography

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1464-9365
1470-1197

Volume Title

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
ESRC (1226049)