Veterans' homecomings: Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

Standard

Veterans' homecomings : Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming. / Sørensen, Birgitte Refslund.

I: Current Anthropology, Bind 56, Nr. Supplement 12, 2015, s. S231-S240.

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelfagfællebedømt

Harvard

Sørensen, BR 2015, 'Veterans' homecomings: Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming', Current Anthropology, bind 56, nr. Supplement 12, s. S231-S240. https://doi.org/10.1086/683298

APA

Sørensen, B. R. (2015). Veterans' homecomings: Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming. Current Anthropology, 56(Supplement 12), S231-S240. https://doi.org/10.1086/683298

Vancouver

Sørensen BR. Veterans' homecomings: Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming. Current Anthropology. 2015;56(Supplement 12):S231-S240. https://doi.org/10.1086/683298

Author

Sørensen, Birgitte Refslund. / Veterans' homecomings : Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming. I: Current Anthropology. 2015 ; Bind 56, Nr. Supplement 12. s. S231-S240.

Bibtex

@article{4e97fe7e8f6f4102897d71da1992d2f3,
title = "Veterans' homecomings: Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming",
abstract = "For Danish soldiers, returning from the battlefields and army camps of international operations to the tranquility of everyday life at home can be a challenging and unsettling experience. Homecoming is often particularly daunting for veterans who leave the army and are compelled to develop a new social identity and find a meaningful life in the civilian world. When doing so, they need to navigate an ambiguous political environment and emergent public imaginaries of the veteran while also wrestling with their own military socialization and personal experiences of war. The certainty previously provided the soldier by rank, function, and mission vanishes and translates into an imperative ontological question about possible veteran subjectivity. In this article I argue that the veterans{\textquoteright} struggle to create postdeployment, postmilitary social identities entails profound secrecy work where past experiences, present conditions, and future ambitions are embedded in webs of concealment, disclosure, exposure, deception, lying, silence, and so forth, only partially controlled by the veterans themselves. The intricacies and anxieties associated with secrecy work are discussed in relation to three veteran trajectories that reflect some of the possible positions that contemporary Danish veterans see for themselves in Danish society.",
author = "S{\o}rensen, {Birgitte Refslund}",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.1086/683298",
language = "English",
volume = "56",
pages = "S231--S240",
journal = "Current Anthropology",
issn = "0011-3204",
publisher = "University of Chicago Press",
number = "Supplement 12",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Veterans' homecomings

T2 - Secrecy and post-deployment social becoming

AU - Sørensen, Birgitte Refslund

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - For Danish soldiers, returning from the battlefields and army camps of international operations to the tranquility of everyday life at home can be a challenging and unsettling experience. Homecoming is often particularly daunting for veterans who leave the army and are compelled to develop a new social identity and find a meaningful life in the civilian world. When doing so, they need to navigate an ambiguous political environment and emergent public imaginaries of the veteran while also wrestling with their own military socialization and personal experiences of war. The certainty previously provided the soldier by rank, function, and mission vanishes and translates into an imperative ontological question about possible veteran subjectivity. In this article I argue that the veterans’ struggle to create postdeployment, postmilitary social identities entails profound secrecy work where past experiences, present conditions, and future ambitions are embedded in webs of concealment, disclosure, exposure, deception, lying, silence, and so forth, only partially controlled by the veterans themselves. The intricacies and anxieties associated with secrecy work are discussed in relation to three veteran trajectories that reflect some of the possible positions that contemporary Danish veterans see for themselves in Danish society.

AB - For Danish soldiers, returning from the battlefields and army camps of international operations to the tranquility of everyday life at home can be a challenging and unsettling experience. Homecoming is often particularly daunting for veterans who leave the army and are compelled to develop a new social identity and find a meaningful life in the civilian world. When doing so, they need to navigate an ambiguous political environment and emergent public imaginaries of the veteran while also wrestling with their own military socialization and personal experiences of war. The certainty previously provided the soldier by rank, function, and mission vanishes and translates into an imperative ontological question about possible veteran subjectivity. In this article I argue that the veterans’ struggle to create postdeployment, postmilitary social identities entails profound secrecy work where past experiences, present conditions, and future ambitions are embedded in webs of concealment, disclosure, exposure, deception, lying, silence, and so forth, only partially controlled by the veterans themselves. The intricacies and anxieties associated with secrecy work are discussed in relation to three veteran trajectories that reflect some of the possible positions that contemporary Danish veterans see for themselves in Danish society.

U2 - 10.1086/683298

DO - 10.1086/683298

M3 - Journal article

VL - 56

SP - S231-S240

JO - Current Anthropology

JF - Current Anthropology

SN - 0011-3204

IS - Supplement 12

ER -

ID: 137906212