Askerî Sosyolojinin Kuruluşu: The American Soldier

Year 2023, Volume: 43 Issue: 2, 167 - 195, 30.12.2023

Nazlı Terzi Adem Başpınar

https://doi.org/10.26650/SJ.2023.43.2.0099

Abstract

Bu makale, askerî sosyoloji disiplininin ortaya çıkış sürecini Samuel A. Stouffer ve onun önderliğindeki “The American Soldier” projesi kapsamında ele almaktadır. Yarım milyondan fazla askere uygulanan 200’ün üzerinde farklı anket ve mülakatlar, bu projeyi o döneme kadar uygulanan en büyük saha araştırması yapmıştır. Bu çerçevede öncelikle “The American Soldier” projesini ortaya çıkaran koşullar ele alınmıştır. İki savaş arası dönemde ABD’de sosyolojinin durumu, kamusal çıktılar üretme işlevi ve gücü, kuram ile uygulama arasındaki konumlanışı gibi hususlar ele alınmıştır. Ardından “The American Soldier” projesinin gündeme gelmesi, projenin amaçları, süreçleri genel hatlarıyla tanıtılmıştır. Projenin ürünleri değerlendirilerek özellikle sosyal psikoloji ve sosyoloji kapsamına giren yayımlar içeriklerine göre ele alınmıştır. “The American Soldier” kapsamında yapılan orduya ve savaşa uyum çalışmaları, göreve atanma ve iş memnuniyeti çalışmaları, etnik temelli araştırmalar ile atama için üretilmiş puanlama sisteminin genel özellikleri, projedeki bulgularıyla birlikte değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak “The American Soldier” çalışmasının askerî sosyolojinin kurumsallaşma süreçlerine giden yolu hazırlayarak bir alt disiplinin doğuşunu hazırlayan mihenk taşlarından birisi olmuştur.

Keywords

Askerî sosyoloji, Samuel A. Stouffer, The American Soldier, Uyum çalışmaları, Tutum araştırmaları

The Founding of Military Sociology: The American Soldier

Abstract

This article examines the emergence of the discipline of military sociology in the context of Samuel A. Stouffer and his project, The American Soldier. More than 200 different questionnaires and interviews with over half a million soldiers made this project the largest field research ever conducted. In this context, the study first discusses the conditions that gave rise to The American Soldier project, such as the status of sociology in the USA in the interwar period, its function and power to produce public results, and its positioning between theory and practice. Next, the study presents in general terms the agenda of The American Soldier project, its goals, and its processes. The study then evaluates the output of the project and discusses the publications that fall within the scope of social psychology and sociology according to their content. The article then evaluates the general characteristics of military and war adaptation studies, deployment and job satisfaction studies, ethnic-based research, and the deployment scoring system developed in The American Soldier alongside the findings from the project. As a result, The American Soldier project was a milestone that paved the way for the institutionalization of military sociology and prepared the birth of a subdiscipline.

Keywords

Military sociology, Samuel A. Stouffer, The American Soldier, Adaptation studies, Attitude studies

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