From warfare to welfare: veterans, military charities and the blurred spatiality of post-service welfare in the United Kingdom. (December 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Herman, Agatha; Yarwood, Richard
• Is Part Of: Environment and planning. Volume 47:Number 12(2015)
• Page Start: 2628
• Page End: 2644
• Publication Date: 2015-12
• Subjects: military geography -- welfare -- veterans -- transition -- military charities -- boundaries; City planning -- Periodicals; Regional planning -- Periodicals; City planning; Regional planning; Periodicals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1177/0308518X15614844
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0308-518X

Abstract

The military offers a form of welfare-for-work but when personnel leave they lose this safety net, a loss exacerbated by the rollback neoliberalism of the contemporary welfare state. Increasingly the third sector has stepped in to address veterans' welfare needs through operating within and across military/civilian and state/market/community spaces and cultures. In this paper we use both veterans' and military charities' experiences to analyse the complex politics that govern the liminal boundary zone of post-military welfare. Through exploring 'crossing' and 'bridging' we conceptualise military charities as 'boundary subjects', active yet dependent on the continuation of the civilian-military binary, and argue that the latter is better understood as a multidirectional, multiscalar and contextual continuum. Post-military welfare emerges as a competitive, confused and confusing assemblage that needs to be made more navigable in order to better support the 'heroic poor'.