Research with veterans suggests that a trauma-informed social security system would benefit all claimants who have experienced trauma

Lisa Scullion and Katherine Curchin draw upon interviews from the first substantive research to focus on veterans within the UK benefits system to suggest that there is much to be gained from the application of trauma-informed approaches to the social security system

Urban poverty and the role of UK food aid organisations in enabling segregating and transitioning spaces of food access

This research examines the role of food aid providers, including their spatial engagement, in seeking to alleviate urban food poverty. Current levels of urban poverty across the UK have resulted in an unprecedented demand for food aid. Yet, urban poverty responsibility increasingly shifts away from policymakers to the third sector. Building on Castilhos and Dolbec’s (2018) notion of segregating space and original qualitative research with food aid organisations, we show how social supermarkets emerge as offering a type of transitional space between the segregating spaces of foodbanks and the market spaces of mainstream food retailers. This research contributes to existing literature by establishing the concept of transitional space, an additional type of space that facilitates movement between types of spaces and particularly transitions from the segregating spaces of emergency food aid to more secure spaces of food access. In so doing, this research extends Castilhos and Dolbec’s (2018) typology of spaces, enabling a more nuanced depiction of the spatiality of urban food poverty

Understanding Lived Experiences of Food Insecurity through a Paraliminality Lens

Moraes, C., McEachern, M. G., Gibbons, A. and Scullion, L. (2021). Understanding lived experiences of food poverty through a paraliminality lens. Sociology, 55(6), 1169-1190. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211003450. Copyright © [2021] (Copyright Holder). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.This article examines lived experiences of food insecurity in the United Kingdom as a liminal phenomenon. Our research is set within the context of austerity measures, welfare reform and the precarity experienced by increasing numbers of individuals. Drawing on original qualitative data, we highlight diverse food insecurity experiences as transitional, oscillating between phases of everyday food access to requiring supplementary food, which are both empowering and reinforcing of food insecurity. We make three original contributions to existing research on food insecurity. First, we expand the scope of empirical research by conceptualising food insecurity as liminal. Second, we illuminate shared social processes and practices that intersect individual agency and structure, co-constructing people’s experiences of food insecurity. Third, we extend liminality theory by conceptualising paraliminality, a hybrid of liminal and liminoid phenomena that co-generates a persistent liminal state. Finally, we highlight policy implications that go beyond short-term emergency food access measures

Despite the suspension of conditionality, benefit claimants are already looking for work

The unique challenges that COVID-19 presents have meant a ‘pause’ in overt work-related requirements. Despite this, and the dire job prospects facing many, the majority of the new COVID-19 cohort of benefit claimants who do not have a job are actively looking for work, find Daniel Edmiston, Ben Baumberg Geiger, Lisa Scullion, Jo Ingold and Kate Summers. This questions many of the assumptions that underpin our increasingly conditional social security system and should encourage policymakers to rethink what income and employment support might look like as we move beyond this pandemic

Rights, responsibilities and redress? : Research on policy and practice for Roma inclusion in ten Member States: Summary Report

The overall objective of the research element was to investigate how the national strategies for Roma integration were being operationalised and delivered within the partner states in respect of combating ‘anti-Gypsyism’. Under this broad remit the research was guided by four specific objectives: 1. To map and explore existing policies and practice for combating anti-Gypsyism and promoting social inclusion in relation to the four core areas outlined above; 2. To consider the effectiveness of existing policies and procedures in combating antiGypsyism; 3. To investigate how existing policy and procedural frameworks are operationalised in practice on the ground; and 4. To explore how policies are experienced by organisations supporting and/or representing the interests of Rom

Rights, responsibilities and redress? : Research on policy and practice for Roma inclusion in ten Member States: Final Report

This report is intended to assist the European Commission, civil society organisations, academics and a variety of key organisations and engaged individuals in furthering understanding of how policy impacts on the lives of Roma in countries across Europe. This report presents the findings from the empirical research in a number of thematic areas. More specifically, Chapter 2 briefly outlines the policy context for this report. In Chapter 3 we consider issues relating to cross-community relations. Employment is the focus of Chapter 4, whilst Chapter 5 focuses on the reporting of antidiscrimination and issues relating to redress mechanisms. Chapter 6 looks at the issues associated with Roma children living in and leaving public care systems. Finally, Chapter 7 discusses a number of cross-cutting issues that permeate the findings across the four main themes, provides some conclusions arising from this research and presents some key recommendations