Finnish Military Officer Identities and Micro-Political Resistance

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211054116
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X20917183

Article

1134644AFSXXX10.1177/0095327X20917183Armed Forces & SocietyLevy

research-article2022

Finnish Military Off‌icer

Identities and Micro-Political

Resistance

Suvi Kouri

1



Abstract

Drawing on the concept of micro-political resistance, this article presents an empirical

analysis of how off‌icers of the Finnish Defence Forces challenge, resist, and reinforce the

collective military identities constructed within the prevailing organizational discourses.

There is a need for identity work to meet the norms and ideals of the military, but in-

dividuals can also work as change agents. Micro-political resistance derives from feelings of

otherness as well as conf‌lict between the dominant organizational identities and individuals’

personal interests. This study presents a thematic discourse analysis based on texts written

by 108 off‌icers and 12 interviews on the theme of “the ideal soldier.”Three main dis-

courses of micro-political resistance were identif‌ied: perceiving the profession of a military

off‌icer as a job like any other rather than a sacred calling, putting family f‌irst, and being oneself

instead of embodying the traditional masculine ideal soldier.

Keywords

military organization, gender issues, ideal soldier, identity work, military identity,

micro-political resistance

1

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of

Jyv¨

askyl¨

a, Finland

Corresponding Author:

Suvi Kouri, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy,

University of Jyv¨

askyl¨

a, PO Box 35, Jyvaskyla 40014, Finland.

Email: suvi.kouri@gmail.com

Armed Forces & Society

2023, Vol. 49(1) 160 –178

© The Author(s) 2021

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211054116

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Kouri 161

An institution is legitimated in terms of values and norms: that is, a purpose transcending

individual self-interest in favor of a presumed higher good (Moskos, 1977, p. 42).

Introduction

According to Moskos et al. (2000), one of the features of what social theorists refer to as

the postmodern age is a decreasing consensus about what the public good might be and

what values it entails. People are less willing to defer to authorities and more eager to

question old truths, often sustained by traditional institutions (Moskos et al., 2000). In

terms of military institutions, this development not only affects civil–military relations

but also challenges the power of the organizational regulation of military identities. In

this study, the concept of micro-political resistance (Davies & Thomas, 2004) is

employed to examine discursive forms of resistance, that is, resistance at the level of

identities and meanings, as Thomas et al. (2004) phrase it. This study provides insight

into the ways in which military off‌icers of the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) contest

organizational identities constructed within the prevailing discourses. Prevailing

discourses refer to the social power and control practiced by an organization over the

actions and minds of its members (van Dijk, 1996). The concept of micro-political

resistance can be def‌ined as subtle forms of disruption in an organizational setting. This

derives from feelings of difference and otherness and conf‌lict between the dominant

organizational identities and individuals’personal interests (van Dijk, 1996).

According to Woodward and Jenkings (2011), traditional military sociological

research has paid limited attention to the soldier at the individual level and the

conceptualization of individual identity. Even though the military is considered a total

institution (Goffman, 1961), it is important to acknowledge that individuals are not

passive entities who submit to organizational control and construct their identities

accordingly. Individuals are creative agents who shape the organizations they inhabit

(Collinson, 2003). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how power,

subjectivity, and agency are negotiated within the rigid framework of a military in-

stitution and how individual identities may further the process of change within an

organizational culture.

Regardless of voluntary subjection to certain forms of organizational control,

military off‌icers’identity work is an ongoing process. Military identities are not f‌ixed

but are subject to change (Kümmel, 2018). Identities, in general, are socially constituted

and expressed (Woodward & Jenkings, 2011). They are contingent and shaped by time

and space (Woodward & Jenkings, 2011). This study aims to address the following

questions:

1) What kinds of discourses of micro-political resistance can be identif‌ied among

FDF off‌icers?

2) What kinds of possibilities does micro-political resistance create to practice

soldiering when the off‌icers’personal identities and the dominant organizational

identities are in conf‌lict?

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