The Biographical Management of Risk and Uncertainty

1

• The Biographical Management of Risk and
  Uncertainty
• British Veterans
• Jens O. Zinn
• University of Kent
• j.zinn_at_kent.ac.uk
• Glasgow, September 2007
• 8th Annual Conference of the European
  Sociological Association

2
Problem and Hypothesis

• Soldiers/Veterans Growing mental health problems
  (PTSD), drug misuse and addiction to alcohol,
  homelessness.
• Neuroscientists It is less the traumatic event
  than the social contexts which lead to problems
  Problems are caused by traumatic experiences as
  much as by peoples experiences of social
  contexts during the course of their life.
• Guiding assumption Veterans develop biographical
  strategies to manage risk and uncertainties which
  help to explain why some soldiers/veterans have
  problems and others dont.
• Hypothesis Only the ones who adapt tightly to
  military culture have major problems to cope with
  their experiences and/or civil life later on.

3
Study and Methods

• Funded by the British Academy, May 2007 August
  2008.
• 12 interviews planned.
• Biographical narrative interviewing (Schuetze
  1983, Rosenthal 1993, 2004).
• Analysis refer to Glaser/Strauss 1967,
  Strauss/Corbin 1990, Rosenthal 2004 and Witzel
  1982, 1989, 1996).
• Computer supported analyses by MAXqda.
• Analyses are informed by the sociology of risk
  and uncertainty and work on biographical
  certainty constructions (Bonss et al. 2004
  Zinn/Eßer 2003 Zinn 2004, 2005, 2006).

4
Analyses

• Four cases
• Relative distance to the military culture
• Traditionalisation of working class culture The
  working class rebel (John).
• Autonomisation of personality Develop a round
  personality to face challenges of life (Ryan).
• Military culture as central point of reference
  and support
• Armed Forces as real family (George)
• Military culture delivers absolute certainties
  how to live a proper life (Albert).

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Relative distance to military culture

• John
• I had qualifications but no culture to become
  an officer. .hh I was firmly working class and
  thats all I wanted to be. .hh So if youre
  working class you hate the officers which I did
  very well you see? I hated them for 6 years
  
• I was very quickly a bit of a renegade I was
  always a bit of a renegade

6
Relative distance to military culture

• Ryan
• Once I did contact my parents they were really
  upset with the fact that Id gone away and Id
  committed myself to something without discussing
  it with them. .hh But they slowly come round to
  the fact that I was a grown up and this was
  something that I wanted to do and I thoroughly
  enjoyed myself there.

7
Relative distance to military culture

• Ryan
• After five years being with the FFL Ryan decided
  to stay with his pregnant partner
• I was starting to fall for this girl she says
  Ive got some news for you and I went oh yeah
  whats that? .hh She says Im pregnant (.) and
  thats it, the decision was made, I dont go back
  in. She had fallen pregnant. So my decision at
  that point was made for me.

8
Military culture as central resource for identity

• George
• Working class background.
• I always wanted to join the forces.
• He adopted the military drinking culture.
• After a traumatic event alcohol became his
  central coping strategy and he became addicted to
  alcohol.
• He was discharged from services shortly after he
  was divorced and became homeless.
• Military was always his only real family and he
  felt unable to cope with the challenges of civil
  life.

9
Military culture as central resource for identity

• Albert
• Single parent family, mixed ethnics, ward of the
  state since age of 13, joined the services with
  16.
• Excellent career with the Marines.
• Office job led to a revision of former
  experience.
• Discharged because of drug use lost status, rank
  and his pension.

10
Military culture as central resource for identity

• Albert
• There was a lot of fighting at school. You
  either let yourself be bullied or you stand up
  and fight so (.) I had learned from my mother to
  fight so thats what I did. At 16 I wanted to
  get out of that situation so I joined the
  services and the best of the services seemed to
  be the Marines at the time so thats why I joined
  the Royal Marines.
• I took to it like a fish to water.

11
Military culture as central resource for identity

• Albert
• And at the time I can remember that injustice
  was all consuming. that shaped my anger
  towards authority, towards .hh (.) people who had
  power and towards my own sense of self of of
  helplessness within the world. .hh The
  military seemed like a place where I could have
  status, where I could be equal, (.) where I could
  be respected by society. Coming from the
  background that I come from that was a big
  thing for me.

12
Military culture as central resource for identity

• Albert
• I didnt seem to fit the world that I was in.
  The mantras by which Id led my life, (.) the
  absolute certainties thats what they were,
  absolute certainties, the flexible rules to be
  applied to different situations but in reality
  the certainties had to be turned upside down.
  These certainties I believe in to such an extent
  that I would give my life or take another life
  for it. I believed in these certainties and of
  course they were shattered. I was almost
  relieved when I had the drugs test because I
  thought I would get some help.

13
Military culture as central resource for identity

• Albert
• Somebody would shout or pick on a girl at a bus
  stop and I would step in and stop them. Somebody
  would be doing something wrong and I would speak
  up against it. .hh To take a risk for your
  future is the natural thing.
• Situations that would have just lead to
  violence immediately, I mean without
  conversation. Immediate violence. Immediate how
  dare you, Bang, and then a conversation. Once
  the fighting started then Im having a
  conversation with them. And thats always been
  the case with me. .hh So Im very proud of
  myself for not doing that.

14
Military culture as central resource for identity

• Albert
• The first person I shot was a girl. (..) I can
  remember firing 5 rounds, kneeling down and
  squeezing off 5 rounds at the drivers seat and
  opening the door and pulling this person out and
  realising it was a girl .hh and not being .hh
  upset because it was a girl or anything like that
  but being angry that my 5 rounds hadnt killed
  her. She was still alive. I can remember
  distinctly being really, really angry (.) that
  she wasnt dead and what a bad soldier I was.
  But I look back on that now and I find that
  incredulous, I really do. You know? Thats
  just (..) But thats what I remember. Its
  things like that that Im very ashamed of.

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Conclusions

• Hypothesis by now
• Fully adoption of military culture and lack of
  alternatives endangers soldiers to break down.
• Main causes
• The contradiction between military culture and
  social reality.
• Military culture as solution for problems of
  former life.
• Difficulties to survive without military support
  culture.
• Addiction to alcohol.