Dr Charles Kirke

Lecturer, Military Anthropology and Human Factors
Location: MH265A
E: c.m.s.kirke@cranfield.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 1793 785381
Department of Management and Security


Current activities

Module Leader, Human Factors Module, Systems Engineering for Defence MSc

Lecture suite includes teaching on, Human Factors Integration, the Human in the System (for system effectiveness and system reliability), Human Behaviour, Fatigue, Countering Fratricide in Battle, Culture, Safety Culture, Leadership and Organizational Culture, British Army Culture, British Services Culture, Culture in the  Workplace

Recent and ongoing research projects have included studies of :

  • Cross Cultural issues between the four Services (Army, RN, RAF, Civil Service)
  • Military cohesion
  • Rule-bending/keeping/breaking behaviour in organizations
  • Leadership
  • Fighting spirit
  • Bullying
  • Integration of reserves into operational units
  • Women in the British Army
  • Attitudes and expectations towards Human Factors among key staff officers in equipment procurement
  • Fratricide/Combat ID.

Clients

Civilian clients have included commercial firms interested in understanding more about the interaction of the Human with technologically-based system.

MOD clients have included those with an interest in soldiers’ and other MOD personnel’s behaviour in military operational units and other organizations. 

Background

  • Completed a 36-year career (up to Lt Col) in the British Army in 2004
  • PhD in 2003
  • Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute
  • First degree was in Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge, from the basis of which he has pursued research into the organizational culture of the British Army over an extended period, leading to his PhD and his subsequent social science research publications
  • During his Army career he spent thirteen years on the Weapons Staff, working in electronic warfare, surveillance technologies, and human factors, and he combines an abiding interest in the inter-relationship between technology and the Human with his work in military anthropology
  • This combination of experience has enabled him to develop concepts, to research, and to teach in the areas of the effects of culture on systems, the interaction between the person, the situation, the group, and technology in an overall situated anthropo-socio-technical system. A particularly promising area for this approach is fratricide on the battlefield, or ‘Combat ID’.
  • A long term research interest is the culture of the British Army, and he is currently engaged in expanding his research into the other elements of the British Services (including the Armed Services and the Civil Service), and interactions between their various cultures.

Selected publications

Published Books 

Kirke, C. (2009), Red Coat Green Machine: Continuity in Change in the British Army 1700-2000, London: Continuum International Publishing Group.  Short listed for the Longman/ History Today Book of the Year Award. Book description at http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=132567&SubjectId=974

 

Forthcoming Books

Kirke C. (ed.), Fratricide in Battle: (Un)Friendly Fire, London: Continuum International Publishing Group.  Book description at http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=158678&SubjectId=974&Subject2Id=1262

 

Published Academic Monographs, Articles and Book Chapters:

Kirke, C. (2010) ‘Orders is orders . . aren’t they? Rule bending and rule breaking in the British Army, Ethnography 11 Number 3, pp. 359 to 380. Abstract at: http://eth.sagepub.com/content/11/3/359.abstract

Kirke, C. (2010) ‘Military Cohesion, Culture and Social Psychology’ Defense and Security Analysis Vol. 26, No. 2, June 2010, pp143-159.  First page preview at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14751798.2010.488856

Kirke, C. (2009) ‘Group Cohesion, Culture, and Practice’ Armed Forces & Society 35 Number 4, pp. 745-753. Abstract at:  http://afs.sagepub.com/content/35/4/745.abstract

Kirke, C. (2009), ‘Seeing Through the Stereotype: British Army Culture – An Insider Anthropology’, in Gerhard Kümmel, Giuseppe Caforio, and Christopher Dandeker (eds.) Armed Forces, Soldiers and Civil-Military Relations: Essays in Honour of Jürgen Kuhlmann, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Socialwissenschaften, pp 13-36. Book description at: http://www.buecher.de/shop/politik--zeitgeschichte/armed-forces-soldiers-and-civil-military-relations-essays-in-honor-of-juergen-kuhlmann-ebook__/-/products_products/detail/prod_id/25995850/

Kirke, C, (2008) ‘Military Law, Justice, and Culture in the British Army’, Law, Social Justice & Global Development 2008 (2) Full text at: http://www.go.warwick.ac.uk/elj/lgd/2008_2/kirke.  Republished as a chapter in Asifa Begum (ed.) Military Law and Justice, Hyderabad: Amicus Books, 2009, pp. 21-47.

Kirke, C, (2008) ‘Issues in Integrating Territorial Army Soldiers into Regular British Units for Operations: a Regular View’, Defence and Security Analysis 24, Number 2, pp 181-195.

Kirke, C. (2007), ‘The Gurkhas in the British Army: an Organizational Cultural Sketch’ in P. Whitney Lackenbauer, R. Scott Sheffield and Craig Leslie Mantle, (eds.), Aboriginal Peoples and Military Participation, Canadian and International Perspectives, Kingston On: Canadian Defence Academy Press, pp. 267-292. Book description at: http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/310893/publication.html

Kirke, C. (2007), ‘Regimental Duty and the New Padre’, The Royal Army Chaplains’ Department Journal, 46, pp 15-21.

Kirke, C. (2007), Addressing Constructions of “Bullying” in the British Army: A Framework for Analysis, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham Paper No. 4, August 2007.  Full text at: http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/arag/document-listings/monographs/Shrivenham%20Paper%204.pdf/view

Kirke, C. (2007), ‘The Transferable “We”: Axes Of Identity for the British Infantry Soldier’, The Journal of Battlefield Technology, 10, Number 3, July 2007, pp 29-36. Abstract at:

http://www.argospress.com/jbt/index.php?main_page=product_book_info&products_id=239

Kirke, C. (2006), ‘“We Don’t Like You, Sir”: Informal Revenge as a mode of military resistance in the British Army’, in Mantle, C. L.  (ed.) the Unwilling and the Reluctant: Theoretical Perspectives on Disobedience in the Military, Kingston On: CDA Press, pp. 213-236. Book description at: http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/305027/publication.html

Kirke, C. (2006), ‘The Organizational Cultural Approach to Leadership: ‘Social Structures’– A Tool for Analysis and a Way Ahead’ in Davis, K, and MacIntyre, A. (eds.) Dimensions of Military Leadership: Kingston On: CDA Press, pp. 283-310.

Kirke, C. and York, J. (2005), ‘Postmodernist Command: a Contradiction in Terms for the British Army?’, Defence Studies, 5, No. 3, September 2005, pp 305-322.  Full text at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14702430500492393

Kirke, C. (2004),  Articulated Common Sense? An Anthropological View of Life at Regimental Duty. The British Army Review, Summer 2004, pp. 53-59.

Kirke, C. (2004), ‘Organizational Culture – the Unexpected Force’, Journal of Battlefield Technology, 7, pp. 11-15.  Abstract at:

http://www.argospress.com/jbt/Volume7/7-2-3.pdf

Kirke, C. (2003),  ‘Postmodernism to Structure: an Upstream Journey for the Military Recruit’.  In McConville, T., and Holmes, E.R. (eds.), Defence Management in Uncertain Times London: Frank Cass, 2003, pp. 139-155. Preview at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jvQssiDwaMkC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=%E2%80%98Postmodernism+to+Structure:+an+Upstream+Journey+for+the+Military+Recruit%E2%80%99&source=bl&ots=oxnTqXi6AY&sig=WRkBfVHMSbJe9ww9lgIt9vZwX70&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P446T8T-CZCq8QOov4n3Cg&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%98Postmodernism%20to%20Structure%3A%20an%20Upstream%20Journey%20for%20the%20Military%20Recruit%E2%80%99&f=false

Kirke, C. (2001),  ‘A Model for the Analysis of Fighting Spirit in the British Army’. In Strachan, H. (ed.), The British Army, Manpower and Society into the Twenty-First Century, London: Frank Cass, 2001, pp. 227-241.  Book Description at: http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9780714680699-1

Robinson, G., and Kirke, C., (1990), ‘Lepidoptera of Ascension Island – A Review’, Journal of Natural History, 24, 1990, pp. 119-135.  Abstract at http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19921175219.html;jsessionid=F9DA0B820429BBFD782BB1047932F09F

Kirke, C. (1988), ‘Social Structures in the Peninsular Army’, RUSI Journal, Summer 1988, pp. 65-71.  First page preview at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03071848808445295

Kirke, C. (1980), ‘Prehistoric Agriculture in the Belize River Valley’, World Archaeology, 11, 1980, pp. 281-286. First page preview available at: http://www.jstor.org/pss/124250

   

PhD Thesis

Kirke, C. (2002), ‘Social Structures in the Combat Arms Units of the British Army: a Model’ (PhD Cranfield University, 2002).  Full text at: https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/bitstream/1826/1054/1/Kirke%20PhD.pdf

 

Consultancy on Dictionary Projects

Consultant on Military Terms, for Pearsall, J., et al (eds.), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

 

Other Publications

Kirke, C (2010). ‘Organizational Culture And Defence Acquisition: A Key Internal Factor For MOD’, RUSI Defence Systems Vol.13 No.1 (June 2010) pp. 97-99.  Abstract at: http://www.rusi.org/publications/defencesystems/ref:A4C222A9BDAC90/

Kirke C. (2008), ‘At the Centre of the System’, Defence Management Journal, Issue 40, February 2008, pp. 130-132.  Full text at: http://www.defencemanagement.com/article.asp?id=329&content_name=Modernising%20Defence&article=9464

Kirke, C. (2004), ‘It’s the Human Factor’ (Human Factors Integration in the British MOD) Defence Procurement Analysis, Winter 2004, pp. 20-21.

 

Chair, International Conferences and Seminars from 2009

Chair, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Symposium on Culture in Conflict, Shrivenham, 8-9 June 2011.  See http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/cds/symposia/cic11.html

Chair, jointly with Professor  Brian Selmeski, US Air Force Culture & Language Center / Air University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Workshop on Military Anthropology, Shrivenham, 10 June 2011.  See http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/cds/symposia/maw11.html

Session Chair, ‘Part Time Soldiers’, Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, Delta Chelsea Hotel, Toronto 15-17 Oct 10. See http://www.iusafs.org/pdf/IUSCanada2010Programme.pdf

Session Chair, ‘Identity and Ethnography – Belonging’ The 5th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences 1-3 Sep 2010.  2011 Conference link is at: http://www.liv.ac.uk/managementschool/ethnography_conference/2011_symposium.htm

Session Chair ‘Hustlers Beats and Others’ The 5th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences, 1-3 Sep 2010

Chair, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Symposium on Culture in Conflict, Shrivenham, 16-17 June 2010. 

Chair, jointly with Professor  Brian Selmeski, US Air Force Culture & Language Center / Air University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Workshop on Military Anthropology, Shrivenham, 18 June 2010.

Session Chair, ‘New Frontiers,  4th Annual Ethnography Symposium, University of Liverpool Management School, 24-25 Aug 09.

Chair, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Symposium on Culture in Conflict, Shrivenham, 17-18 June 2009. 

 Chair, jointly with Professor  Brian Selmeski, US Air Force Culture & Language Center / Air University, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom Workshop on Military Anthropology, Shrivenham, 19 June 2009.

 

Invited Papers Presented at National and International Academic Conferences and Seminars since 2009

 Kirke, C. (2011) ‘The View from the Trench: Practical Military Considerations when Heritage meets War’,  Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Protection in Wartime: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives, Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict/Research Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Swansea University, 20th May 2011.  Conference summary at: http://lootingmatters.blogspot.com/2011/05/archaeology-and-cultural-heritage.html

Kirke, C. (2010) ‘Some Thoughts about Culture’, Dstl sponsored Attack the System Workshop, London, The Royal Society, 17-18 March 2010.

Kirke, C. (2010) ‘Bullying: Who Says?’ MOD sponsored Equality and Diversity Conference, Larkhill, 20 October 2009.

Kirke, C. (2009) ‘Organisational Culture: a Key Internal Factor’, RUSI Defence Programme Management Conference, Realism in Decision-Making: Starting a Programme Well, London, 29-30 September 2009.

Kirke, C. (2009) ‘Modelling the Human – Simple Verbal/diagrammatic Behavioural and Social Models as Frameworks for Thinking and Analysis’, US Office of Naval Research sponsored Workshop on Human, Social, Cultural and Behavioural Influences, Istanbul, 2-4 Jun 09.

 

Papers Presented at National and International Academic Conferences and Seminars Since 2009

Kirke, C. (2010), ‘Soldier, Girl, or What?  Women in the British Army’ Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, Delta Chelsea Hotel, Toronto 15-17 Oct 10.  See http://www.iusafs.org/conferences/conferences.asp

Kirke, C. (2010), ‘Ensign Hill: a Credible Defence?’, The 5th Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences, Queen Mary’s University, London, 1-3 Sep 10.  Full text at: http://www.liv.ac.uk/managementschool/ethnography_conference/papers2010/Kirke.pdf

Kirke, C. (2009)  ‘Military Cohesion, Culture and Social Psychology’ Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago 23-25 October 2009.

Kirke, C. (2009) ‘A Soldier of the 71st – the Real Deal?’, 4th Annual Ethnography Symposium, University of Liverpool Management School, 24-25 Aug 09.  Full text at: http://www.liv.ac.uk/managementschool/ethnography_conference/papers2010/Kirke.pdf

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