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Infantilisering och homosociala omsorgspraktiker inom brandkårens operativa verksamhet

Abstract

Dissecting the iconic image of the male fire fighter this article offers an understanding of how masculine enactments and homosocial rituals within the Swedish fire service rest upon practices of care and infantilization. In doing so, it draws on an ethnographic fieldwork that was carried out during the year of 2011 in Bodö, a small town in northern Sweden. Previous research has shown that practices of care, although traditionally coded female, are also intimately linked to homosocial communities in which care for other men is in fact part of the exclusion of women. In a similar vein, attention has been directed to infantilization as a means of excluding women from male dominated domains. Confirming to previous research, this article identifies practices of care and infantilization as multifaceted means of identification within the fire service, which sometimes appear to over-ride the traditional expectations of fire fighters. I argue that practices of care and infantilization are crucial to the homosocial rituals that pervade the community of fire fighters. At the same time, practices of care and infantilization contribute to challenging this collaboration: they are situational in that their meaning is affected by the current situation. Highlighting the dynamics of change within the fire service, this article seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the temporary constructions of masculine values and ideals that pervade the Swedish fire service.