Suchergebnisse

Starting in 1969, the Irish Defence Forces began to send its officers to attend civilian university in University College Galway as part of their professional formation, through the University Service Administrative Complement (USAC) scheme. Using a conceptual framework that combines role theory with James C. Scott's concept of 'infrapolitics', this paper interrogates how or whether full time, commissioned officers negotiate role tensions while attending civilian higher education as part of their professional military formation. Role theory would suggest that those who are expected to maintain two roles simultaneously, i.e. as student and military officer, would be expected to experience 'role strain'. This paper illustrates instead that student officers deploy a variety of infrapolitical tactics and strategies, thus creating an alternative route to negotiating role tensions and anxiety.

APPROVED ; The military profession has a long history, and its institutions of education have been central to the development of military officers. Questions about the higher education of officers became increasingly important in the wake of World War 2 and the changing nature of military authority and the roles that military officers would be expected to fill. In Ireland these changes became manifest in the advent of the decision in 1969 to send Army officers to university in University College Galway. Combining documentary and archival research with data generated through semi-structured interviews with 46 retired and serving officers, it adopts a conceptual framework of role theory combined with ideas from James C. Scott in a case study approach to examine the origins and effects of the USAC scheme for the civilian higher education of Irish military officers since 1969. It answers the question of how officers in the Defence Forces interacted with civilian higher education at undergraduate level, and how this influenced their socialisation, professional formation, and the implications of higher education for them as individuals and for their military role.