Venue : Amphi René Rémond (Institut catholique de Paris – ICP)
As part of the research program of the Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies (IESD, Lyon 3) on high strategic capabilities, in partnership with the Center for Strategic Aerospace Studies (CESA) and the Faculty of Arts at the Catholic Institute of Paris, A research day will be held on 19th May in Paris on the theme of « the Image and Identity of Aviators. »
Research Day – The Evolution of the image of Aviators (program)
The aim is to combine both historical and sociological approaches in order to identify the main threads of a long-term reflection on the identity of the airman in the military landscape and the understanding of this identity from a French perspective. The question will be that of the path that goes from identity based on personal experience to the image conveyed externally and of the contribution of this image to personal experience, in a society where media representation of military life is more prominent than in the past.
While the armed forces are reaffirming their military specificity, by more clearly assuming the combat purpose of the commitment in the uniform, the Air and Space Force (AAE) is in a exceptional situation: In our imaginations, the act of fighting is almost entirely carried out by fighter pilots; the importance of accurately describing the purpose of other categories of aviators deserves analysis, even though the media coverage of air operations is confronted with difficulties in accurately representing the structure and memory of aviation operations. More generally, it is the whole narrative of the realities lived by aviators that will be analysed.
