Reflections on Social Justice and Pluralism
All social science research is done for someone and some purpose. There is no politically neutral social science. The political agenda behind this article is my concern about the fate of the…
All social science research is done for someone and some purpose. There is no politically neutral social science. The political agenda behind this article is my concern about the fate of the…
The focus of my recent writings has been the state formation of Sri Lanka. The starting point of this work is to see the state as a product of history that is…
Given the wars and conflicts that engulfed the world at the end of 2023, peace and conflict studies have become even more important as we welcome 2024. This article is based on…
This article was prompted by a question I came across during some recent discussions. Does inequality matter? My immediate reaction was to point out that all types of social oppression such as…
The starting point of the analysis in this article is to question the conventional approach to studying a state. The conventional approach treats the state as a concrete, self-contained entity that has…
The crisis facing Sri Lankan society today is the result of contradictions arising from two processes in the specific Sri Lankan context: efforts to sustain the post-war state and continuing with the…
Embassy This month the Sri Lankan state celebrates 75 years of independence from British colonialism. This is a good to opportunity to remind ourselves about the link between Sri Lankan state formation…
This article explains a framework for analysing Sri Lankan state formation and understanding the current challenges that the country is facing. My interest in state formation began when trying to make sense…
Capitalist transition within a state is a process that involves changing institutions or the rules of the game so that markets become the primary mechanism for resource allocation. These changes must be…
Statfor The post war Sri Lankan state’s inability to fulfil the demands of global finance capital has devastated the lives of millions of Sri Lankans. This is a country where we see…
I am currently living in the UK, which has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is one can keep a little distance from the dynamics of current events. This helps to get…
Both Sinhala nationalists and followers of liberal peace base their analysis of post-war Sri Lanka as a country that has ended a violent phase of its history, and now it is time…
When globalisation was the dominant concept for looking at the world, pandemics were discussed as a global security issue. The objective was to see how pandemics have an impact on global security,…
Soon it will be two years since the election of President Sirisena. His victory was consolidated in the general election held in August 2015. There was a lot of euphoria when this…
Featured image courtesy SriLankaBrief The year 2009 is important for the post-colonial history of Sri Lanka, because in that year the most serious armed challenge to the territorial integrity of the country…