Pluralism in military service: diversity and unification in group interviews with Finnish conscripts

In this article, I analyse the entwining processes of differentiation and homogenization in Finnish military service. The study contributes to the debates on group cohesion, and subsequent analyses of the armed forces’ capability to recognize and deal with diversity among soldiers. Drawing on group interviews with 85 Finnish conscripts, conducted in 2023, I argue that there is a conflicting approach in their views on issues of diversity: on one hand, they recognize differences among their group, but, on the other hand, they claim that there are no differences. Diversity was encountered in everyday service life and most often related to differences in physical capabilities. To homogenize and unify the group of individuals was regarded as part of the armed forces. Although there appeared to be a strong tendency to unify the conscripts to a homogenic group, differences between them still emerged. However, these were left for the conscripts to deal with privately through ad hoc means, without the support of the institution. I use James’ pragmatist approach as a sensitizing analytic lens, when focusing both on how the conscripts talked about diversity and homogenization and how they dealt with emerging differences in the group interview situations.