Banchi alimentari, volontariato e stigma. La cerimonia di degradazione di Garfinkel e il ruolo del lavoro nella rappresentazione del povero

Abstract

This paper focuses on the representation of food bank users through the lens of Garfinkel’s degradation ceremony (1956): that is, a communicative work aimed at transforming an individual’s total identity into a lower social identity, by recalling moral indignation, in order to reassert social norms and reinforcing group solidarity. The aim of this paper is to investigate how representations on users might be put in place in a real life assistance context, as a food bank, and the ways in which this could be framed as a degradation ceremony (Garfinkel 1956), as a way to reassert the social norm by clearly separating the ingroup and the outgroup (Goffman 1963). For this purpose, the paper will discuss the results of a qualitative research held in two food banks in Turin, Italy, conducted using participant observation and qualitative interviews with users and volunteers.