Emergent Veteran Identity: Toward a New Theory of Veteran Identity in Israeli Society (original) (raw)
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Зборник радова филозофског факултета у Приштини, 2015
The paper discusses how war veterans perceive themselves and how they answer the question "Who am I?". War veterans face many challenges in the process of re-socialization from a state of war and war traumatization to a peacetime society. There are several reasons why their re-socialization is a slow process: the first one is that a war engagement is in itself a highly stressful situation which carries traumas of different degrees, the other reason is the changed system of values in relation to war engagement. Namely, at the time they went to war, they had a strong social support, but at the time of their return and today this support is lost to the point of judgment. And the third reason which limits their re-socialization is the situation of social transition they found on their return from war, which specifically means that a large percentage of the population in general, and thus the war veterans after returning from the war, lost their jobs, creating a large social group of "transition losers". Such a condition often generates an identity crisis. This set of socio-cultural circumstances together with the ontological insecurity carried by war trauma generate an identity crisis, which is manifested among the respondents in nihilistic answers when responding to questions about their own personality. Studying the identity of war veterans, it was found that a strong attachment to the veteran identity is dominant. In fact, this paper discusses the different ways in which this attachment is re-fracted in the personality and identity of subjects, from negative attitudes to the pride in belonging to a group of war veterans and personal fulfillment in the activism in associations of war participants.
Sociological Research Online, 2018
Promoting positive transition to retirement and cultural adaption for ex-service personnel has been identified as a priority for both social-science research and for public health policy in the UK. The Royal British Legion aims to provide support to service and retired service personnel, but to date the transition to retirement experiences of older (60-plus) ex-service personnel remain under-researched. In this article, we employ a symbolic interactionist theoretical framework to examine older servicemen’s experiences and identity challenges post-retirement from the British armed forces. Data were collected primarily through semi-structured, focus-group interviews with 20 former servicemen. Here, we focus specifically upon the challenges encountered by these ex-servicemen in the retirement transition from military to civilian life, a time of identity flux of sociological interest. To navigate this period of identity change and challenge, many participants constructed a ‘modified military self’ through involvement with the Royal British Legion as a key social support network. For many retired personnel the Royal British Legion offered a form of identification and group identity that resonated strongly with earlier experiences of comradeship in the military.
Dissertation, 2022
While the state has formally defined who is a veteran in the Netherlands, little is known about processes of meaning making around the veteran status among veterans themselves. Yet, veterans are addressed as such by numerous initiatives taken to meet their needs in health, finances, and societal recognition and appreciation. What does being a veteran mean to the people for whom this specific policy is developed? And how do they express this meaning in interaction with the wider society? Various studies have implied how self-images and public images of soldiers and their mission are constructed in interaction with each other during deployment as well as shortly after the deployment. The question is whether this also applies to images of veterans who have left the service and, if yes, how this process unfolds. In order to gain a better understanding of the identification of veterans, this study has examined the interrelation between how veterans identify as a veteran and their perceptions of how society perceives and views them as veterans. In this context, I compared the narratives of veterans who participated in three missions that differ in terms of the period, military context, and public perception, namely Dutchbatt in Lebanon, Dutchbat in Srebrenica (former Yugoslavia) and Task Force Uruzgan in Afghanistan. In my analysis, I use an etic approach, as I inferred analytical concepts from the semi-structured interviews with 47 veterans, added with observations during veteran gatherings and events. What the groups had in common was an “inheritance” of military culture—veterans painted a picture of “the veteran” as a loyal buddy and pointed to differences between veterans and civilians. The experience that makes them a veteran—the military deployment—creates a unique bond with fellow veterans while separating them from civilians at the same time. All veterans who participated in this research project described societal ignorance of the work of armed forces, its missions, and its veterans. Veterans faced moral stigma and judgements, as they felt stereotyped as violent killers or mentally ill persons. However, the length of time that had passed since the mission took place as well as the military context of the mission caused the groups to differ in how they reacted to societal ignorance and judgments, resulting in different images of “the veteran”, namely the veteran as a so-called “injured person” (Lebanon and Srebrenica), as a “helper” (Srebrenica), or as a “dedicated soldier” (Uruzgan). Also, the groups differed from each other in what they saw as the root cause of ignorance in society—this was influenced by both the length of time that had passed since the mission took place and the public debate concerning the mission in which they participated. These differences in perceptions were reflected in how veterans presented themselves to the wider society. Hence, perceptions in society, the passing of time, and the military context of the mission played a crucial role in identification processes among veterans. Further, I discuss how veteran policies promote the recognition and appreciation of veterans by society. However, entitlement to societal recognition and appreciation might enhance feelings of separation, since it puts the ones deserving recognition and appreciation at a distance from the ones giving the recognition and appreciation. I argue how veteran policy encourages identification as a veteran, which, in turn, might hinder the reintegration of veterans into society instead of fostering this process. By cultivating the veteran status, veterans may be kept in an eternal in-between space of being neither civilian, nor soldier, thus embodying the civil–military gap.
Frontiers in Sociology, 2024
This article takes its starting point in a longitudinal interview study that began in 2013 with the aim of investigating identity reconstruction during the transition from military to civilian life. Annual follow-up interviews were conducted for 3 years, after which there was a break for 7 years until 2023 when a new interview cycle was conducted. The article presents the findings from this interview round. The purpose of the study was to describe the ways in which military identity had impacted the selves and lives of the participants. An inductive approach was employed in the analysis and an abductive approach used in the interpretative phase. The results showed, among other things, that a military identity, containing a particularly strong work ethic, had grown salient over the years. This military identity salience amplified the perception of a contrasting civilian work ethic, which generated moral frustration and even conflict. It was seen as imperative to maintain consistency between a military work ethic and the identity standard as a civilian employee rather than to modify the behavior to another standard, i.e., a civilian standard. These results were counterintuitive given the earlier interview cycles. A military work ethic was generally a powerful asset but could have negative health outcomes, manifesting as burnout. The results reflect the challenges in operating multiple identities tailored to contrasting moral regimes. Future longitudinal qualitative and quantitative research approaches to selfidentity work among former service members are warranted.
Sociological Research Online
Promoting positive transition to retirement and cultural adaption for ex-service personnel has been identified as a priority for both social-science research and for public health policy in the UK. The Royal British Legion aims to provide support to service and retired service personnel, but to date the transition to retirement experiences of older (60-plus) ex-service personnel remain under-researched. In this article, we employ a symbolic interactionist theoretical framework to examine older servicemen’s experiences and identity challenges post-retirement from the British armed forces. Data were collected primarily through semi-structured, focus-group interviews with 20 former servicemen. Here, we focus specifically upon the challenges encountered by these ex-servicemen in the retirement transition from military to civilian life, a time of identity flux of sociological interest. To navigate this period of identity change and challenge, many participants constructed a ‘modified mil...
Veteran Identity Formation and Performance: The Case of Student Veterans
2021
This dissertation examines how men who were previously in the military, collectively known as veterans, modify their practices in unfamiliar social situations like the university. In some instances, there are elements which impact their existence on campus, such as the lack of mental health support necessary for re-integrating into society after the mental conditioning of the military. In this research, I discuss how exposure to military practices and reassociation with the civilian world creates a veteran masculinity, and this set of practices presents opportunities and complications for those who inhabit the identity. My research draws on 23 semi-structured interviews with male student veterans to demonstrate specific compensations men enact in their formation of veteran masculinity, and how the veteran masculinity and identity are constrained by the influences of military and civilian factors. I demonstrate how these men gain a sense of being disconnected, a ?stranger," due ...
Female Veterans' Identity Construction, Maintenance, and Reproduction
Women and Language, 2006
This study explores female veteran's identity construction, maintenance, and reproduction. Participants included all members of one regional veteran organization, the Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services in the Navy (WA VES). Participants' service began as early as World War II and ended as late as the Persian Gulf War. The community of practice approach (Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992) frames our analysis of how the practices of this WA VES veteran's group help maintain and reproduce identities constructed during military service. Participants described their time in the military as the most important experience of their lives. They reported growing from shy, naive young women to mature, self-confident adults. Participants found the transition back to civilian life problematic, in part due to difficulties meeting traditional gender role expectations and in part due to isolation, as they no longer related to civilian women in their hometowns. Participants reported membership in this WAVES unit allows opportunities to reminisce and relate to women with similar experiences. Based on participants' reports, we argue this unit serves as a community of practice through which members maintain and reproduce identities constituted during active military duty.
Drawing from 26 life story interviews of recent American veterans, this paper analyzes the identity struggle faced by soldiers returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and reentering the civilian world. Instead of examining veterans’ problems as a consequence of post-combat mental illnesses such as PTSD and major depression, we analyze the contrast between the participants’ identities as soldiers and their identities as civilians. We find that the postwar transition causes adverse mental health effects that stem from contrasts between the military’s demands for deindividuation, obedience, chain-of-command, and dissociation and the civilian identity expectations of autonomy, self-advocacy, and being relational. Veterans’ reintegration to civilian society is further hindered by a culture that is perceived (by veterans) as having decreased understanding of the soldier/veteran experience itself. These identity conflicts—what we term warring identities—have an important yet understudied effect on veterans’ combat-related mental health problems.