Veteran Transition from Military to Civilian Life: Towards a Sociocultural Framework for Social Support

Abstract

The transition period for reintegrating into the civilian environment can be challenging, posing unique challenges of socialisation and cultural adaptation for young Danish veterans. However, young Danish veterans have not yet been targeted by social support that handles them as a distinct category of veterans. Therefore, this article analyses a widely used Danish framework for social support, the Battlemind-Homemind framework. The article discusses how the framework supports the challenges of young Danish veterans, in order to identify support needs. The framework is found to hold limitations for providing social support in relation to young Danish veterans' distinct challenges. A case is made for an alternative choice of sociocultural frameworks, specifically transformative learning theory, to understand and support socialisation and cultural adaptation challenges. Transformative learning theory is used to explore social challenges in young Danish veterans' narratives on transition. The analysis reveals how veterans attempt to deal with social challenges, and how their attempts are limited by three elements:(1) Norms that suggest that people in authority define the culture of environments. (2) A veteran perception that different norms constitute an unstructured environment. (3) Aggression control as a veteran behaviour that limits cultural adaptation. Based on these analyses, social support recommendations to the Danish Defence are provided within three themes: (1) Recognise young Danish veterans as a group facing distinctive challenges. (2) Consider sociocultural frameworks for the conceptual foundations of social support. (3) Increase awareness of challenges in education environments.

Danish Veteran Challenges and Support Structures: An Overview to Enable Transnational Analysis

“…This is, in part, because they have been subjected to military socialisation while mostly separated from civilian society (Sørensen, 2015). After deployment, veterans are prompted to quickly resume their previous lives, which often results in personal and social challenges (Kofod et al, 2010;Pedersen & Wieser, 2021).…”

“…These topics impact the identity transformation of veterans, which puts them at risk of alienation. Similarly, Pedersen and Wieser (2021) ascribe these veteran challenges to encounters between different lifeworlds, which provide "horizons of tacit knowledge that is specific to a social group" (p. 163) that enable the interpretation of experiences. When veterans respond critically to new experiences, this may be explained as an encounter with civilian society that conflicts with the veterans' military identity and may, from a lifeworld-phenomenological view, result in alienation.…”

“…American literature on Battlemind inspired the programme's name, while the conceptual foundation of the programme differed significantly (Adler et al, 2007;Castro et al, 2006), which is relevant because the foundation lacked scientific underpinning and thus came with limitations for reaching its aims. For instance, its focus on lowering the adrenaline production in veterans' brains to enable social navigation and readjustment (Jonasen, 2009;Kragh & Jonasen, 2008) meant that it perceived veterans as passive subjects, and social navigation as aggression control (Pedersen & Wieser, 2021), which calls for a further need to strengthen the framework through scientific literature.…”

Editors’ Note: Stocktaking of an Emergent Field After Five Years of the Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

“…But we also insist that any such link or relevance may be understood broadly. Examples from the journal's archives cover a wide range of themes, including digital education (Kosonen, Vekkaila, & Pullinen, 2023), life-writing (Hagen, 2019), veterans transitioning to civilian life (Pedersen & Wieser, 2021), peacekeeping (Wisén et al, 2021), cyber militias (Svantesson, 2023), and search and rescue (Dahlberg et al, 2020).…”

Reintegration of cyber veterans: challenges and strategies for post-war transition

“…Often these programmes include activities that extend to include the veteran's family members and they can help in reconnecting and healing broken internal connections in the families (Tsybko, 2023). Younger veterans, would also benefit from support that offers interactive re-socialization and re-cultivation aid organized in educational institutions in connection with their studies (Pedersen and Wieser, 2021). Interventions witch focus on strengthening personal resilience and available support before and after exit seem to protect against stress and depression and enable psychosocial functioning (Pietrzak et al, 2010).…”