Finding Balance: Individuals, Agency, and Dual Belonging in the United States National Guard

Abstract

Militaries exhibit characteristics of total and "greedy" institutions. However, in the United States National Guard where negotiation of dual belonging in civilian and military worlds is necessary, institutional control of the individual is limited. National Guard service highlights the need to view individuals as agents who possess the ability to monitor and enact their own goals and to understand the immense variation found among individuals within powerful institutions. Negotiating belonging in civilian and military institutions illuminates questions of individual agency, as agency is simultaneously enabled and restricted in different ways. Drawing from qualitative research conducted with 48 National Guard soldiers from 2008-2009, I focus on three areas of the Guard experience particularly relevant to these issues: (1) reasons for choosing Guard participation, (2) work/life balance, and (3) deployment. Based on this analysis, I illuminate how individuals engage in a shifting of the levels at which they successfully exert their agency; a formulation of agency which allows for the mutual existence of structure and individual action. Individuals negotiate and accept limits on their agency in some areas in order to enable their agency in others, preserving a sense of control over the course of their lives and actions.