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Applying Convention Theory to Military Sociology: Achievements and Perspectives

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Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions

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Abstract

Military organizations have special features like following different organizational laws in times of peace and war and their specific embeddedness in society and politics. Especially the latter aspect has made the military an important object of study since the beginnings of modern sociology. In the wake of establishing specific sociological accounts, military sociology has been developed, dedicated to the different facets of the military. This research is based on different theoretical perspectives, but has hardly embraced the frameworks from economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) so far. The aim of the chapter is to explore and demonstrate the potentials of this approach. In a first step, the state of the art of military sociology research is outlined, and potential avenues for analyzing military forces based on EC/SC are identified. It is argued that especially the connection to organizational theory (military as organization) and civil-military relations, including leadership and professionalism, offer starting points. After introducing existing studies addressing military-related topics with reference to EC/SC, relevant concepts and approaches of convention theory that prove to be particularly enriching for military research are discussed. An outlook on possible further fields and topics of research is given to concretize how an inclusion of the perspective of EC/SC could look like.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helmut-Schmidt-University, Hamburg, Germany

    Esther Berner

  2. Reutlingen University / ESB Business School, Reutlingen, Germany

    Arjan Kozica

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  1. Esther Berner
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  2. Arjan Kozica
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Correspondence to Esther Berner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Rainer Diaz-Bone

  2. University of Lille, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France

    Guillemette de Larquier

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Berner, E., Kozica, A. (2023). Applying Convention Theory to Military Sociology: Achievements and Perspectives. In: Diaz-Bone, R., Larquier, G.d. (eds) Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52130-1_73-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52130-1_73-1

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