Maintaining “the Family” During Deployment: Presence Work by Military Families

Abstract: Studies of military families show growing concern about how deployments affect them. Recent scholarship proposed that new communications technology will make it easier for families to cope, but also suggests this might blur the lines between work and home for military members. This literature lacks focus on the lived experiences of military families. The aim of this research was to address this gap by examining what families actually do to communicate during separations, orienting to the concept of “emotion work” wherein maintaining intimacy is an accomplishment requiring effort. I conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 47 military and family members, and service providers who worked with military families, to explore how military families endeavor to create presence during separation; how the military features in families’ explanations of presence work; what the capacities and limitations of available technologies for creating presence work; and what the implications of presence work were for military members’ roles in families. Participants’ narratives showed differences in the availability of technologies and their accessibility during deployment, which affected families’ ability to create presence during separations. They drew on a number of strategies to accomplish presence, including work undertaken during interaction and work on the self in the form of emotion management. While participants reported that the deployed military member was still “part of the family”, military members were unable to participate regularly in the household’s activities. The most salient challenges were regarding the military’s institutional demands. Military members’ service requirements made them unavailable for communication; bases lacked infrastructure to enable members to use a broad range of technologies; and policy restricted what could be said and when. In response to this institutional “greediness”, families emphasized their personal responsibility to adapt, rather than expressing a desire for structural changes. I conclude that the military’s intrusion into family life results in families undertaking additional emotional labour, including presence work, in order to maintain a sense of connectedness during deployments, where the demands on military members’ resources are particularly high.