The canalization of morality in institutional settings: Processes of values development within military socialization

In this article, we aim at analyzing, from a cultural psychological approach of semiotic dynamics, institutional practices guided to promote the development of moral values in the military. Along these socialization processes, each subject actively reconstructs the external messages in particular ways, interacting with social suggestions according to preexistent affective-semiotic orientations. Based on a longitudinal qualitative study conducted over three years at the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras, which graduates the Brazilian Army’s combatant career commissioned officers, we analyze cultural canalization practices used by the military taking into account the affective-semiotic dynamics involved. We also focus the impacts of military socialization on the internalization of the value of Discipline by three subjects in order to illustrate the variability of meaning making and affective bonding in that context. Our goal is to contribute to the understanding of how institutions canalize moral values, while individuals also play an active role in their own development.