Ethnographic Study of the Military Body’s Enactment of Routines at a Training Camp

Anu Valtonen; Aki-Mauri Huhtinen; Soili Paananen

doi:10.31374/sjms.43

Ethnographic Study of the Military Body’s Enactment of Routines at a Training Camp

Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

Volume 3 (2020): Issue 1

By: Anu Valtonen, Aki-Mauri Huhtinen and Soili Paananen

Open Access

|Nov 2020

Abstract

This study sets out to explore embodied aspects of military routines. It conceptualises the body as a waking-sleeping being and analyses routines from the perspective of sleep. In doing so, it challenges the privileged position wakefulness has had in earlier explorations of military routines. We have conducted a multi-year ethnographic study at a military training camp in Finland and analysed how cadets enact routines during their training. The analysis demonstrates how their bodies balance between sleeping and waking and remain active while asleep. We thus offer a rich micro-level understanding of the dynamic aspects of the sleeping-waking body’s enactment of routines. Our study has implications for the studies of military bodies and military routines.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31374/sjms.43 | Journal eISSN: 2596-3856

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Language: English

Page range: 132 - 143

Submitted on: Jul 30, 2019

Accepted on: Apr 22, 2020

Published on: Nov 13, 2020

Published by: Scandinavian Military Studies

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

routines,

body,

sleep,

ethnography,

military training

© 2020 Anu Valtonen, Aki-Mauri Huhtinen, Soili Paananen, published by Scandinavian Military Studies
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 3 (2020): Issue 1