Living Liminal Lives: Army Partners’ Spatiotemporal Experiences of Deployment

• Author: Emma Long
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X21995966
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X21995966

Armed Forces & Society

2022, Vol. 48(3) 589 –608

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X21995966

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Article

Original Manuscript

Living Liminal Lives:

Army Partners’

Spatiotemporal

Experiences of

Deployment

Emma Long

1

Abstract

The emotionalcycle of deployment theorized by Loganand adapted by Pincus, House,

Christenson, andAlder is often applied by academics and military support agencies to

define, explain, and provide advice on the experiences and possible emotional reac-

tions of military families during phases of deployment. Interviews with army partners

showed that spatiotemporal experiences and perspectives are more complex than

those affordedby the emotional cycle of deployment.This article argues that applying

the conceptof liminality uncovers some ofthis complexity, illuminatingthe in-between

times experienced during deployments that are otherwise hidden. Army partners

move through andbetween deployments and deployment phases haunted by specters

of past and future deployments. By disrupting seemingly chronological and discrete

spatiotemporal narratives, which often frame research on military families and

deployment,this article demonstrateshow army partners move through andbetween

deploymentsand deployment stages negotiating past and future deployments.It shows

how they continuously adapt and evolve practices while negotiating interpreted pasts

and imagined futures in pursuit of becoming “ideal.”

Keywords

sociology, deployment, liminality, army partners, postdeployment, family issues

1

Department of Politics, University of York, United Kingdom

Corresponding Author:

Emma Long, Department of Politics, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.

Email: emma.long@york.ac.uk

590 Armed Forces & Society 48(3)

Nonserving partners of military personnel can experience various challenges when

managing deployments, particularly as they adapt and adjust their roles within the

family home (Lapp et al., 2010). Discrete, chronological time periods are often used

in research and practice to frame discussions around their experiences of deploy-

ment. This is exemplified by the “emotional cycle of deployment” model, adapted

by Pincus et al. (2001), organizing deployment into stages: “predeployment,”

“deployment,” “sustainment,” “redeployment,” and “postdeployment.” Through

thematic analysis of interviews with 26 army partners, this article demonstrates how

this model, which relies on a chronological conception of discrete times, is limited in

its utility of framing experiences of time around deployment. Through applying the

concept of liminality, the often taken-for-granted emotional cycle of deployment is

troubled by considering time-space in-between discrete times and spaces the model

represents.

The concept of liminality is receiving renewed attention from scholars (Thomas-

sen, 2016). Liminality refers to transition, broadly understood as the state of ambi-

guity and disorientation in-between separation from a social order (preliminal) and

reincorporation with another social order (postliminal; Thomassen, 2016; Turner,

1967). By foregrounding ambiguous liminal times experienced by army partners,

this article explores the qualitative implications of how their present is affected by

their interpretation of their pasts and imagined futures. Rather than relying on the

chronological emotional cycle of deployment, which infers a beginning, progres-

sion, and end, partners’ experiences are more complex as they may be haunted by

future deployments and lingering, dormant outcomes of past deployment s. For

example, role handover is cursory postdeployment as partners maintain a state of

readiness for imagined future deployments, a strategy often learned from previous

separations.

As much military-provided support is organized around the deployment cycle,

building understandings of how deployments are experienced by army partners is

important. While the emotional cycle of deploy ment is useful in framing broad

experiences in terms of military-times through deployment, it relies on militarized

framings of time and space which simplify the complexity of experiences and labor

of partners. Through exploring liminal spatiotemporalities, this article develops

present understandings of UK-based army partners’ experiences and labor around

deployments. This is particularly useful as UK-focused qualitative research is lim-

ited. Indeed, whilst there is some research which considers partners’ experiences

of deployment, it often focuses on those living overseas (Dandeker et al., 2006;

Hyde, 2016) and other research focuses on the acute effects of war, often through a

positivist-leaning lens. This research uses a qualitative, interpretivist methodol-

ogy, taking a life-history approach, enabling UK-based army partners to reflect on

other periods of their lives, drawing connections with their present.

The article begins with an overview of the emotional cycle of deployment,

followed by a discussion on time, space, and liminality to highlight the limitations

of the model. It then provides an overview of military partner roles and identities to

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