Ephemera(l) Geopolitics: The Material Cultures of British Military Recruitment

Abstract

This paper explores contemporary cultures of British military recruitment and considers the domestication of geopolitics as matters of the ephemeral (fleeting, sensory encounters), and of ephemera (everyday objects). It employs an auto/ethnographic approach toward spaces critical to recruitmentthe airshow, the home and the body. Three central contributions are developed: first, building on a recent turn to the material in political geography, the paper argues that taking seriously materiality, objects, and 'stuff' enhances our understanding of the connections between geopolitical, militarised and everyday; second, deploying a notion of the geopolitical social, it explores the geopolitical as it is situated in everyday lives and spaces; third, it investigates the tendency for militarised objects to find their way onto and around bodies and into domestic spaces. Set at the interface of literatures in critical geopolitics and critical military studies, the paper concludes that material encounters and everyday objects are matters central to the business of geopolitics and militarism.

‘Remembrance isn’t working’: First World War battlefield tours and the militarisation of British youth during the centenary

“…As Rech (2019) has demonstrated in his work on material cultures of British military recruitment, the 'static', in situ stuff in these object handling sessions highlight 'the 20 Overheard during observation, 2017. 21 Observed during object handling sessions, 2016 and 2017. determinacy of immediate space' which acts 'to decontextualize objects -to remove them from spaces of battle -in order that a range of ethical questions about their use might be avoided' while simultaneously 're-plac[ing] objects in the imagined landscapes of Western military endeavour' (Rech, 2019: 12).…”

“…As Rech (2019) has demonstrated in his work on material cultures of British military recruitment, the ‘static’, in situ stuff in these object handling sessions highlights ‘the determinacy of immediate space’ which acts ‘to decontextualize objects – to remove them from spaces of battle – in order that a range of ethical questions about their use might be avoided’ while simultaneously ‘ re- plac[ing] objects in the imagined landscapes of Western military endeavour’ (Rech, 2019: 12). On the third night of the tour, the GBG and army personnel, supported by UCL IoE staff, ran a session contrasting First World War era and present-day equipment utilised by the British army.…”

“…While this helped students understand historical change and continuities, it also had a tendency, during the observations undertaken, to descend into play with students and teachers trying on uniform, painting their faces with camouflage cream (2015), undertaking a ‘gas mask’ relay race (2016) and the distribution of army branded ‘goodies’ like pencils and glow sticks (2017), 22 which bear a troubling similarity to the ‘thing-ness’ of contemporary recruiting and remembrance. Here, objects – such as Help for Heroes bracelets, poppies and free pens, lanyards and keyrings distributed at outdoor military recruitment events – fold militarism and geopolitical power into everyday habits and routines, animating certain narratives about warfare that obscure violence and bloodshed (Basham, 2016; Rech, 2019).…”

Forging volumetric methods

“…1-2) assert, objects "constitute and exercise state power," acting not as "mere vessels," but rather agential in "transforming the networks into which they are enrolled" (see also Shaw, 2012). This is echoed in diverse geographical work exploring discarded belongings left by migrants as revealing of the violent geographies of the border (Sundberg, 2008), and examining how attending to "stuff" improves understandings of links between geopolitics, militarisation, and the everyday (Rech, 2019). Such accounts are attentive to diverse "calculations" made, enacted, and mediated by objects.…”

Stitching together the nation's fabric during the Chile uprisings: towards an alter-geopolitics of flags and everyday nationalism

“…An important element of the protestors' responses in Chile was the creative use of objects that have come to embody their struggle and these include items of clothing like handkerchiefs and masks (used to protect the eyes, nose and mouth from tear gas), statues unofficially installed along the streets and parks of central Santiago (that have included indigenous figures and el negro matapacos), banners with political slogans painted on them, and perhaps most widespread, flags (an informal merchandising market emerged on the streets surrounding Plaza de la Dignidad, or Plaza Italia soon after the protests started). Political geographers have highlighted the capacities of 'objects [to] enable, disable, and transform state power, beyond just reflecting it' (Meehan et al, 2013: 2;Fregonese, 2017;Rech, 2019;Thrift, 2000). Far from being 'passive objects of political deliberation and prostheses of human agency', material objects, 'co-articulate agency [alongside/with humans] and shape political practices…in crucial, often unexpected ways' (Müller, 2017: 414-15).…”