Military Identities in the Situated Accounts of British Military Personnel

Abstract

This article examines individual military identities as articulated by serving and former British military personnel. Following a review of approaches to military identities in both traditional military sociology and more contemporary sociologies of military personnel informed by post-structuralist theories, the article introduces a methodological approach to identities driven by respondents’ perspectives generated during photo-elicitation interviews. These constructions of military identities rest on: the assertions and demonstrations of professional skill, competence and expertise of the trained military operative; the significance of fictive kinship and camaraderie amongst soldiers; and the place in identity work of personal participation in events of national or global significance. Military identity, we argue, is a locally emergent phenomenon, constituted by members’ concepts of their own identity. These findings complement and develop existing sociological conceptualizations of military identities.

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“…Veterans can portray themselves as practitioners of a martial craft holding a 'special' professional competency and that they have made a committed contribution to nationhood (Zirker et al;2008). This reinforces the notion of personal presence, firstly that they were present at a significant national or global event and secondly they played as significant role in it, (Woodward and Jenkings, 2011) they stood and were 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 Such self-authored belief systems that veterans ascribe to themselves sets their future legacy, for example, many leavers have low expectations of becoming civilians (Walker, 2012) living in a world of the parochial and mundane which can invoke many challenges for personal adjustment unleashing feelings of anxiety, fear, despair and shame. Such perspectives expose veterans to the perils of confirmatory bias, which limit expectations and life trajectories, summoning the need for a more informed and critical introspective to be taken, often lacking in leavers .…”

“…This reinforces the notion of personal presence, firstly that they were present at a significant national or global event and secondly they played as significant role in it, (Woodward and Jenkings, 2011) they stood and were accounted for alongside their 'comrades in arms' a band of brothers reinforcing a close fictive kinship. This has considerable significance as this also infers who was not there and therefore are excluded group the 'civvy' reinforced in social culture "shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, and hold their manhood cheap" (Shakespeare, 1559, Act IV Scene iii 18-67).…”

“…This can be seen to challenge the current notions of military identities as being based on factors such as race or class following similar themes to Woodward and Jenkings (2011) but this is also reinforcing the notion that people are practical beings (Ricoeur 1984) personnel not expected to gain high levels of satisfaction from their civilian occupation .…”

“…This can be seen to challenge the current notions of military identities as being based on factors such as race or class following similar Woodward and Jenkings (2011) but this is also reinforcing the notion that the military are practical beings (Ricoeur 1984) who identify with what they do. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 This also created personal challenges with the "civilian other" reinforced by; "they do not get it", "they only have one pace", "no one really gets on with it", "get their arse in gear", "like watching children at play", "sometimes just hopeless" "bit stronger leadership" and "I just got on with it".…”

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“…In more recent research, it has been suggested that military identities can usefully be conceptualised not only as attributes that can be mapped into sociological or military categories, but as practices emerging from within the narrated lived experiences (as per Lawler, 2014) of Services personnel. Woodward and Jenkings (2011) found identities constructed around skill, competence and expertise; kinship and camaraderie; and relations to the operations or sphere of Service (e.g. Iraq, Northern Ireland) in soldiers' narratives.…”