Anticipating Army Exit

Walker, David Ian (2013) Anticipating Army Exit. Armed Forces & Society, 39 (2). pp. 284-304. ISSN 0095-327X

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X12437689

Abstract

There is recent concern about what becomes of Armed Forces leavers. This is most apparent among leavers themselves and is a feature of short careers that compel individuals to find replacement jobs and lifestyles. Concern for one’s civilian future rises to prominence in the preexit period and is confronted in resettlement processes during this time. Based on qualitative analysis of interviews with twenty-eight UK regular Army career soldiers and officers, the article argues that the final year of service—though mostly a practical endeavor—is also an important time for tackling matters of identity. The work is underpinned theoretically by a combination of Mead’s pragmatism and Ricoeur’s hermeneutics and constructs a typology of preexit orientation. This is an approach that casts some doubt about the utility of projecting oneself into unknown civilian futures from the context of distinctive and familiar Army relations.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: military, army, identity, self, intersubjective, transition, resettlement, career
Subjects: L500 Social Work
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Depositing User: Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited: 20 Sep 2017 15:47
Last Modified: 12 Oct 2019 14:37
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/31900

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