C et article aborde les diverses facettes de la gestion des émotions et de ses exigences au travers d’une étude qualitative portant sur les troupes suédoises déployées dans le cadre d’opérations en faveur de la paix, pour l’essentiel au Kosovo et au Libéria. Il s’éloigne des traditions de recherche établies en sociologie des émotions.

L’analyse des données recueillies s’y réfère en effet à la typologie élaborée par Bolton (2005) à propos des émotions au travail. Cette typologie offre un cadre pluridimensionnel mettant en évidence la façon dont les règles de gestion du sentiment qui émanent de l’organisation, de la profession et de la société influent sur la motivation, l’identité professionnelle, l’efficacité et la manière de servir. L’étude valide une double hypothèse, la typologie de Bolton révèle certains aspects jusque-là restés dans l’ombre des contraintes qui pèsent en la matière sur les acteurs militaires des opérations en faveur de la paix ; les exigences de la gestion émotionnelle sont plus aiguës dans ce cadre d’activité que dans ceux dont a traité jusqu’ici la littérature.

This article focuses on the multifaceted demands for emotion management in Peace Support Operations (pso) as revealed by a qualitative study of Swedish troops serving primarily in Kosovo and Liberia.

With departure in emotion sociology, the data is analyzed with reference to a typology on work place emotion elaborated by Bolton (2005). The typology offers a multifaceted framework highlighting how the existence of organizational, professional and social “feeling rules” influence the employee’s motivation, professional identity and performance. It is argued that Bolton’s typology sheds new light on the emotional demands of military peace support operations, but also that the need for emotion management herein is much greater than in organizations referred to in former research.

This article focuses on the role of ”applied” workplace humor (Mulkay 1988) as used by Swedish soldiers deployed overseas. The data primarily refers to workplace signs encountered at military compounds in Liberia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan and interviews with Swedish soldiers before, during, and after deployment. The article aims to compare signs found in two types of military contexts; high and – low-intensity conflict areas respectively, and the findings show that differences in the nature of operations (i.e. threat level and duties) is reflected in the messages’ content. 

Further, we see humorous exchanges during overseas missions as something that provide the scope for relieving various stresses arising from disillusions, and from being subordinated to rules, policies and designed roles, but also where barbed ideas inappropriate for ”serious” communication are vented (Fine 1988). Overall, the paper adds to the literature a description of humorous exchanges in two organizational settings where the need for sense making is always present.

It is widely recognized that participation in high-intensity military missions abroad can result in discomforts, serious health conditions, and psychological consequences for the individual. This article, however, focuses on soldiers' experiences after service in two relatively calm mission areas. It aims to contribute to a discussion of the emotional price soldiers pay even when participating under these circumstances. It argues that although the general view among soldiers is that service abroad is a unique, rewarding and cherished experience, we should further recognize it as an accomplishment that also has other transformative properties. This is often manifested in what is here named 'Post-Deployment Disorientation' (PDD), invoking a different outlook on life and navigation in the social world. This article explores the soldiers' sense-making of this change by adopting an emotion-focused sociological perspective. Confirmation of assumptions made is presented through reference to interviews with 24 Swedish soldiers before, during and after their deployments to Kosovo and Liberia.