This chapter adds another dimension to the socio-locational aspects of life by investigating how respondents interpreted and engaged outside the home, especially in situations involving perceived negative constructions and expectations. The chapter is especially interested in public encounters, viewing these as arenas of moral scrutiny. The discussion identifies respondents’ experiences of situations in which they have to represent themselves and their families, and investigates the cognitive and social processes and activities that they engage in to counter negative depictions of themselves and family members. We hear especially people's accounts of key interactions in public settings – ranging from casual encounters in supermarkets and so forth to more ‘formal’ encounters at schools and benefit offices. To what extent and why are such encounters associated with embarrassment and/or shame and does this affect people's sense of empowerment, identity, well-being and resource use? This set of questions is considered in the first two parts of the chapter. The third looks at if and how people engage in ‘othering’, that is, distancing themselves from others through negative depictions, especially of those who appear to be in relatively similar situations. The emphasis throughout is on how people on low income view social interactions and how they seek to convey particular images or impressions of themselves and/or their family.

The chapter is guided by a number of theoretical touchstones: in particular shame, embarrassment and othering. Over 50 years ago, Helen Lynd (1958) expressed the view that shame was so pervasive that it was like water to fish. Scheff (2000) has suggested that shame is increasing in modern societies, while at the same time awareness of shame as a general feature of social life is decreasing. It is so taken for granted that it is part and parcel of everyday life. In the contemporary context, Peacock and colleagues (2013, p 394) suggest that neoliberalism has opened up additional spaces where the working class can be shamed and at the same time has undermined what might have been sources of resistance. The existing literature tends to confirm this, identifying shame and humiliation as part of the experience of being on a low income (Sen, 1983; Narayan et al, 2000; Lister, 2004; Hooper et al, 2007; Chase and Walker, 2013).