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.

本文将英国的粮食不安全现象作为一种门槛现象进行考察。我们的研究是在紧缩措施，福利改革和越来越多的个人所经历的危险中进行的。利用原始的定性数据，我们重点介绍了各种粮食不安全经验，这些经验是过渡性的，在日常食物获取阶段到需要补充食物的各个阶段之间波动，这既增强了粮食不安全感，又增强了粮食不安全感。我们为有关粮食不安全的现有研究做出了三项原始的贡献。首先，通过将粮食不安全性概念化为临界值，我们扩大了实证研究的范围。其次，我们阐明了共享的社会过程和实践，这些过程和实践与个体的机构和结构相交，共同构建了人们的粮食不安全经验。第三，paraliminality，是阈限现象和类淋巴现象的混合体，共同产生持续的阈限状态。最后，我们强调了短期紧急粮食获取措施之外的政策含义。