Beyond Food Banks: Everyday Geographies of Coping in Austere Times

After more than eight years into the current austerity regime, for those most affected, everyday life has become increasingly strained and shaped by the classed and gendered realities of austere policies (Hall, 2015). Much of our understanding of the impacts of austerity has come through a focus on food needs and the provision of food banks (Garthwaite et al., 2015). This research, focussing on different kinds of charitable schemes in relatively deprived county of Merseyside in the North-West of England, will explore the more neglected spaces and needs, outside of food-centred analyses, offering new insights into how people, and women especially, have responded and managed in the face of economic hardship, and the diverse nature of community-based infrastructures which have been developing with and around them.