Post-Heroic Warfare Revisited
Meaning and Legitimation of Military Losses
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2322915 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kristian Frisk (University of Southern Denmark, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 898-914 |
| Publication date | 2018-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0038038516680313 |
| OpenAlex | W2581194497 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 31 |
The article challenges the thesis that western societies have moved towards a post-heroic mood in which military casualties are interpreted as nothing but a waste of life. Using content analysis and qualitative textual analysis of obituaries produced by the Royal Danish Army in memory of soldiers killed during the Second World War (1940-1945) and the military campaign in Afghanistan (2002-2014), the article shows that a 'good' military death is no longer conceived of as a patriotic sacrifice, but is instead legitimised by an appeal to the unique moral worth, humanitarian goals and high professionalism of the fallen. The article concludes that fatalities in international military engagement have invoked a sense of post-patriotic heroism instead of a post-heroic crisis, and argues that the social order of modern society has underpinned, rather than undermined, ideals of military self-sacrifice and heroism, contrary to the predominant assumption of the literature on post-heroic warfare
Appeal · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Legitimation · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Politics · Sacrifice · Sociology · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Health and Conflict Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Introduction
The Sociology of Hype
Danish Veteran Challenges and Support Structures
Exploring Modern Heroism Based on ‘Mutual Beneficence’
Subverting the strategic corporal
Everyday security and the newspaper obituary
Kants Theorie des demokratischen Friedens und der Krieg in der Ukraine
Closing the ranks
From Casualty Aversion to Civilian Protection
Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
War Is Back in Post-Heroic Europe
The Emergence of Regressive Heroism in Current Far-Right Populism
Professionalized Heroism? Comparing US, UK, and Norwegian War Decorations From the War in Afghanistan
How (Not) to Win a Medal
What Makes a Hero? Theorising the Social Structuring of Heroism
States of Memory
Constructing Death
A Social History of Dying
The Combat Soldier
The sacred canopy
Fallen Soldiers
The Warrior Ethos
The Sociology of War and Violence
Analysing Discourse
What Costs Will Democracies Bear? A Review of Popular Theories of Casualty Aversion
The Sociology of Death
Online war memorials
Hierarchies of Grief and the Possibility of War
What's the Use of It?’
Blood Sacrifice and the Nation
The politics of mourning
Embodying militarism
The Afghan War and 'postmodern' memory
The revival of death
Heroes, Villains, and Fools
Death in American Society - a Brief Working Paper
Toward Post-Heroic Warfare
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Organizations and Identity
The Presentation of Dead Selves in Everyday Life
Epilogue
Popular Culture, Sport and the 'Hero'-fication of British Militarism
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,88 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |