Emotions in Public Policy: A study on the problem of hunger
Hunger; Policy; Emotions; Critical Policy Studies; Afection
Hunger is a frequent object of research in different fields, as diverse as their
interpretations of reality, causalities, and social repercussions, opening a vast horizon of
studies. In the field of Public Policies, the problem of hunger is still treated primarily
under prescriptive lenses, with few works focused on its different perceptions, the effects
of affections, social interaction, and its reflexivity. However, there are a number of authors
who propose that affections are inseparable from public policy processes and can bring
important perspectives to policy makers and researchers, often ignored by classical
pragmatism, opening space for exclusion, subalternity and silencing of vulnerable social
groups. This work starts from a bibliographic review on the concepts of hunger explored
by different knowledge fields, analyses some important evaluation tools and delves deeper
into the relationships between subjectivities, emotions and public policies based on Critical
Studies in Public Policies. It also proposes an effort to build an evaluative model based on
the understanding of hunger as a public affection, contributing to emotionally affected
public policies. This work is closed by a case discussion about a public action aimed at the
homeless population, the identifiable arguments in this relationship and how hunger is
understood by some of the voices involved, including my own.