where military leavers & veterans write to redefine their futures | 'you fought — now write for your life'
The following is the latest abstract taken from my thesis, which is on the point of being resubmitted after post-viva revision This thesis considers the unique nature of military life and work, and how this can complexify a transition back into the civilian context. In using an autoethnographic framework to narratively reflect upon his own experience of … Continue reading Beyond being the best: educating for narrative repair in transition from British Army to ‘Civvy Street’
An article posted in ‘The Warrant Officer’ has caused me to wonder if the manoeuvrist approach (an approach that many military veterans will be familiar with from their former professional lives) can be applied to any problems they encounter in transitioning to civilian life.
Graham explains his motivation for researching military to civilian transition and indicates what this research reveals. https://youtu.be/KIDgsg5zC50 Graham Cable interviewed by veteran Kirk Barlow on 20 May 2019
Definitions and limitationsTransition: This post uses Cox et al.’s definition of transition as ‘a process of adaptation from one identity or culture to another’ (2018, p. xiv). Military leavers: In this post, the term ‘military leaver’ refers to those that are preparing to, but have not yet left the armed forces. Veterans: The UK government defines a veteran … Continue reading Military to civilian transition: towards an integrated support system
This article follows on from previous posts exploring the notion that some Service leavers experience reverse culture shock upon transitioning from military to civilian life (particularly if also dealing with additional trauma), and that an ingrained 'military' stigma acts against seeking help when needed.
In this article, the potential power of 'narrative' approaches to combatting this are explored, drawing on the work conducted in the Canadian context.
I have previously focused on some of the challenges that Service leavers face when leaving the armed forces.
But what is evident, both from my own experience, and by looking at this in more detail, is that a 'military' family is frequently right at the heart of this challenge, both in a supporting role—and perhaps more crucially—also potentially in need of support.
Excellent piece by Nick Caddick and Sarah Bulmer.
In the first post to this new War Stories blog, we reflect on current stories about veterans in ‘transition’ and why these stories matter. Transition is the term which is used – usually uncritically and straightforwardly – to refer to the process by which military service members leave the armed forces and re-enter civilian life. As we set out below, there are numerous social narratives that compete to claim the ‘truth’ about veterans’ transition and these narratives reflect assumptions about military and civilian life (Caddick & Smith, 2017). Our intention is therefore to sketch out, briefly, what is at stake in the various truth claims put forward in these different narratives, as well as to question what the discourse of ‘transition’ itself enables us to see and what it might exclude.
In the UK, there is a dominant narrative – dominant, in the sense that is has the weight…
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Aside from aspects looked at in my previous post, the nature of military life also requires that its people should be mentally and physically robust enough to operate in arduous, extreme and dangerous conditions (Finnegan et al., 2014). That, after all, is what a nation pays its armed forces to do.
However, given this requirement for physical and metal robustness, research concludes that when issues do arise—particularly around mental health—resolving them is often hampered through fear of recognising or being open about them.
In many respects, a career in the armed forces is unlike all other jobs.
Military work can occupy 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and it frequently involves working, sleeping and socialising with the same people, in a 'self-contained social world'.
With its ‘different ways of communicating and relating to others, different living arrangements, [...] and different standards of behaviour, dress, and bodily comportment’, it is often described as more of a 'life' than a job.
Just over a year after a diagnosis of cancer (and an associated reaction of 'adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood') the time came to hand back my Army uniform. This was kit I had worn day in and day out for almost 20 years, and it felt like relinquishing not just a uniform, but an identity.
