Thiruni Kelegama
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 113540 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Thiruni Kelegama |
| NOMBRES | Thiruni |
| APELLIDO | Kelegama |
| FIRMA | KELEGAMA T |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6545-0868 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 8 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 25 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 8 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2020 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Sri Lanka in 2024 and 2025
Between 2024 and 2025, Sri Lanka experienced a political rupture without precedent as the National People’s Power won overwhelming electoral mandates, shattering dynastic rule, and promising systemic transformation. Yet the government’s first 15 months revealed how thoroughly sovereignty had already been circumscribed. Economic policy was bound by inherited IMF programs and creditor-shaped debt restructuring. Foreign relations required simultaneo…
The politics of rural access and settler colonialism
This commentary extends Van Sant and Fairbairn's right to the rural concept by examining how access claims operate in contested territories through the case of Weli Oya, Sri Lanka. Analysing this Sinhala settlement scheme at the edge of Tamil-claimed territories, I demonstrate how rural access claims transcend agricultural utility to serve territorial control projects and reinforce settler colonial dynamics. These tensions necessitate a more nuan…
Engineering Exception
This article examines how elite brokers reshape sovereignty and territorial control through mega-infrastructure development in the Indian Ocean region. Through an ethnographic study of the US$14 billion Chinese-funded Colombo Port City development in Sri Lanka, it analyses how presidentially appointed Commissioners exercise unprecedented authority over territorial governance through three interrelated mechanisms: legal-institutional innovation th…
Sri Lanka in 2022 and 2023
In the span of two years, Sri Lanka saw one of the biggest protests in South Asia, ousted a president and his government, defaulted on its sovereign debt, declared bankruptcy, appointed an unelected president, went to the IMF for a bailout loan, delayed elections, moved even further away from justice and reconciliation, and celebrated 75 years of independence. While the resignation of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family from government hi…
Militarized Development in Post-war Sri Lanka
Development is an important, yet contentious word, in the history of post-colonial Sri Lanka. Typically, it is linked with economic progress and societal change, intricately woven into political processes and frequently utilized as a platform to promote Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonationalist agendas. This article looks at post-colonial Sri Lanka's 'core development project' - the Mahaweli Development Programme - and its post-war revival with the milit…
The lure of land
This paper studies the contradictions of peasant politics in Sri Lanka's dry zone frontier in a highly militarized colonization scheme ('System L' of the Mahaweli Development Programme in Weli Oya in northern Sri Lanka). Through a detailed ethnographic study of the life histories of settlers who came in two waves to this scheme (1980s and post-2009), we show the workings of what we call the 'lure of land': first, as the (al)lure that attracts lan…
Transforming critical agrarian studies
This paper examines the challenges and opportunities faced by critical agrarian scholars in and from the Global South. We argue that despite the historical and structural limitations, the critical juncture of convergence of crises and renewed interest in agrarian political economies offers an opportunity for fostering a diverse research agenda that opens space for critical perspectives about, from and by the Global South, which is mostly absent i…
Marginal placeholders
This study explores the political significance of peasant identities, rice cultivation and land struggles in the context of civil war. It comprises two agrarian settlements in Sri Lanka's former war zone: a state-sponsored Sinhala settlement colony (Weli Oya) and a village formerly ruled by the Tamil insurgency (Sampur). We conceptualise both communities as 'marginal placeholders' positioned in Sri Lanka's embattled Dry Zone frontier. Their conte…
Transforming critical agrarian studies
This paper examines the challenges and opportunities faced by critical agrarian scholars in and from the Global South. We argue that despite the historical and structural limitations, the critical juncture of convergence of crises and renewed interest in agrarian political economies offers an opportunity for fostering a diverse research agenda that opens space for critical perspectives about, from and by the Global South, which is mostly absent i…
Marginal placeholders
This study explores the political significance of peasant identities, rice cultivation and land struggles in the context of civil war. It comprises two agrarian settlements in Sri Lanka's former war zone: a state-sponsored Sinhala settlement colony (Weli Oya) and a village formerly ruled by the Tamil insurgency (Sampur). We conceptualise both communities as 'marginal placeholders' positioned in Sri Lanka's embattled Dry Zone frontier. Their conte…
The lure of land
This paper studies the contradictions of peasant politics in Sri Lanka's dry zone frontier in a highly militarized colonization scheme ('System L' of the Mahaweli Development Programme in Weli Oya in northern Sri Lanka). Through a detailed ethnographic study of the life histories of settlers who came in two waves to this scheme (1980s and post-2009), we show the workings of what we call the 'lure of land': first, as the (al)lure that attracts lan…
Militarized Development in Post-war Sri Lanka
Development is an important, yet contentious word, in the history of post-colonial Sri Lanka. Typically, it is linked with economic progress and societal change, intricately woven into political processes and frequently utilized as a platform to promote Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonationalist agendas. This article looks at post-colonial Sri Lanka's 'core development project' - the Mahaweli Development Programme - and its post-war revival with the milit…
The politics of rural access and settler colonialism
This commentary extends Van Sant and Fairbairn's right to the rural concept by examining how access claims operate in contested territories through the case of Weli Oya, Sri Lanka. Analysing this Sinhala settlement scheme at the edge of Tamil-claimed territories, I demonstrate how rural access claims transcend agricultural utility to serve territorial control projects and reinforce settler colonial dynamics. These tensions necessitate a more nuan…
Marginal placeholders
This study explores the political significance of peasant identities, rice cultivation and land struggles in the context of civil war. It comprises two agrarian settlements in Sri Lanka's former war zone: a state-sponsored Sinhala settlement colony (Weli Oya) and a village formerly ruled by the Tamil insurgency (Sampur). We conceptualise both communities as 'marginal placeholders' positioned in Sri Lanka's embattled Dry Zone frontier. Their conte…
The lure of land
This paper studies the contradictions of peasant politics in Sri Lanka's dry zone frontier in a highly militarized colonization scheme ('System L' of the Mahaweli Development Programme in Weli Oya in northern Sri Lanka). Through a detailed ethnographic study of the life histories of settlers who came in two waves to this scheme (1980s and post-2009), we show the workings of what we call the 'lure of land': first, as the (al)lure that attracts lan…
Transforming critical agrarian studies
This paper examines the challenges and opportunities faced by critical agrarian scholars in and from the Global South. We argue that despite the historical and structural limitations, the critical juncture of convergence of crises and renewed interest in agrarian political economies offers an opportunity for fostering a diverse research agenda that opens space for critical perspectives about, from and by the Global South, which is mostly absent i…
Sri Lanka in 2022 and 2023
In the span of two years, Sri Lanka saw one of the biggest protests in South Asia, ousted a president and his government, defaulted on its sovereign debt, declared bankruptcy, appointed an unelected president, went to the IMF for a bailout loan, delayed elections, moved even further away from justice and reconciliation, and celebrated 75 years of independence. While the resignation of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family from government hi…
Militarized Development in Post-war Sri Lanka
Development is an important, yet contentious word, in the history of post-colonial Sri Lanka. Typically, it is linked with economic progress and societal change, intricately woven into political processes and frequently utilized as a platform to promote Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonationalist agendas. This article looks at post-colonial Sri Lanka's 'core development project' - the Mahaweli Development Programme - and its post-war revival with the milit…
The politics of rural access and settler colonialism
This commentary extends Van Sant and Fairbairn's right to the rural concept by examining how access claims operate in contested territories through the case of Weli Oya, Sri Lanka. Analysing this Sinhala settlement scheme at the edge of Tamil-claimed territories, I demonstrate how rural access claims transcend agricultural utility to serve territorial control projects and reinforce settler colonial dynamics. These tensions necessitate a more nuan…
Engineering Exception
This article examines how elite brokers reshape sovereignty and territorial control through mega-infrastructure development in the Indian Ocean region. Through an ethnographic study of the US$14 billion Chinese-funded Colombo Port City development in Sri Lanka, it analyses how presidentially appointed Commissioners exercise unprecedented authority over territorial governance through three interrelated mechanisms: legal-institutional innovation th…
Sri Lanka in 2024 and 2025
Between 2024 and 2025, Sri Lanka experienced a political rupture without precedent as the National People’s Power won overwhelming electoral mandates, shattering dynastic rule, and promising systemic transformation. Yet the government’s first 15 months revealed how thoroughly sovereignty had already been circumscribed. Economic policy was bound by inherited IMF programs and creditor-shaped debt restructuring. Foreign relations required simultaneo…
Law (5 obras) · Political science (5 obras) · Politics (5 obras) · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development (4 obras) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography (4 obras) · Law (4 obras) · Political economy (4 obras) · Sociology (4 obras) · Geography (3 obras) · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies (3 obras)