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.