Soldiers' Perceptions and Expectations of Converting Military Capital—The Cases of Israeli and British Militaries*☆

Abstract

Research regarding the ability to convert military resources into valuable social resources (convertibility) focused on the macro-level. These researches examined the influence of various mechanisms on the ability to convert military service into objective rewards in the civilian sphere and labor market. The aim of this research is to focus on a neglected part in the research of convertibility: the micro-level analysis that emphasizes the subjective dimension. We argue that soldiers are motivated by, evaluate and perceive their military service through the capitals they acquire during military service which they expect, or not, to convert into the civilian sphere and labor market. The article presents a comparative analysis of veterans from the Israeli and British militaries, based on interviews with soldiers who served in both combat and non-combat roles.

Problematising teachers' accounts of privilege in elite high schools

“…All of the teachers also experienced an elite life trajectory in Israeli society's terms: serving in post-high school prestigious military units (military service is compulsory in Israel) (e.g., intelligence and cyber security) and senior army positions (e.g., officers or command positions). In Bourdieu's (1984) terms, military service in prestigious units constitutes symbolic capital, or what Grosswirth and Binks (2021) termed 'military capital'. After the military, many teachers began their university studies in well-regarded programmes (e.g., law, computer science, neuroscience), followed by a career change to teaching.…”