Ethnographic Study of the Military Body’s Enactment of Routines at a Training Camp

Abstract

This study sets out to explore embodied aspects of military routines. It conceptualises the body as a waking-sleeping being and analyses routines from the perspective of sleep. In doing so, it challenges the privileged position wakefulness has had in earlier explorations of military routines. We have conducted a multi-year ethnographic study at a military training camp in Finland and analysed how cadets enact routines during their training. The analysis demonstrates how their bodies balance between sleeping and waking and remain active while asleep. We thus offer a rich micro-level understanding of the dynamic aspects of the sleeping-waking body’s enactment of routines. Our study has implications for the studies of military bodies and military routines.

Keywords

• routines
• body
• sleep
• ethnography
• military training