Humanitarian Ngos and Mediations of Political Order in Sri Lanka

Bibliographic Data

ID8094435
AuthorsBirgitte Refslund Sørensen (corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume40
Issue1
Pages113-142
Publication date2008-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-4810 • E-ISSN: 1472-6033
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14672710801959166
OpenAlexW1994512771
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited12

This article argues that international and national humanitarian NGOs have a far more fundamental bearing on the social reconstitution of Sri Lankan society as a political, cultural, and moral entity than is usually acknowledged. Through their interventions, humanitarian agencies affect the power relationship between state and non-state actors and between local organizations and the war-affected populations that make up their constituencies. But NGOs also affect the political order by introducing new understandings of the citizen and providing alternative moral arguments to legitimize power and authority. What is taking place, the author contends, is best conceived of as mediations, since the global and the local, the modern and the traditional are coexistent as sources to be strategically drawn upon by the actors. Notes 1. Wickramasinghe Citation2001, 35. 2. Ibid., 78. 3. Goodhand and Hulme Citation2000, 392. 4. Gledhill 2004. 5. Sørensen Citation2005; Wickramasinghe Citation2001. 6. Examples are Wickramasinghe 2001; Orjuela 2004; and Goonatilake Citation2006. 7. The present discussion focuses on NGOs, but despite their growth in numbers and visibility and the changes they have effected in rural Sri Lanka, they are not the only institutions involved in the redefinition of the Sri Lankan political order. Religious institutions, political parties, business ventures, sports clubs, along with state institutions such as schools are all sites where transformations and mediations of the structures, values, and practices that constitute a particular political order can and do take place. 8. Skalnik 1999. 9. Gaonkar Citation2002; Taylor 2002. 10. Jenkins Citation2001. 11. Karlstrom Citation1999. 12. Wickramasinghe Citation2001, 60. 13. Paley 2002, 478. 14. Street 1993. 15. Wickramasinghe Citation2001, 13. 16. Woost Citation1997, 235. 17. Chandraratna Citation2003, 174. 18. Chatterjee Citation2001, 173; italics added. 19. Although interesting, it is beyond the scope of this article to engage in a discussion of the “partnership” strategy. For a critical discussion see Wickramasinghe Citation2001, 94. 20. Jackson Citation2002. 21. Brow Citation1996, 73. 22. Moore Citation1985, 5. 23. Chandraratna Citation2003, 169. 24. Ibid., 171; see also Moore Citation1985, 5; and Ong 2004. 25. This is not to say that the model does not also have negative outcomes, corruption and opportunistic politics being two of them (Chandraratna Citation2003). 26. Brow Citation1996, 38. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. See also Stirrat Citation1996; Scott 1998. 30. Moore Citation1985, 224. 31. Chatterjee Citation2001, 173. 32. Strathern Citation2000, 2. 33. Ibid., 4. 34. Gledhill Citation2004, 340. 35. Sørensen Citation2005. 36. This took place at a time when the government forces were continuing to “liberate” communities in the LTTE-controlled areas. This created an enormous demand for humanitarian assistance, which was first of all to save lives and restore people's shattered livelihoods, but which was also intended to support the government's political aims, namely, winning the hearts and souls of the Tamil population. 37. Wickramasinghe Citation2001, 168; Woost Citation1997, 503; Brow Citation1996, 27-8. 38. Werbner Citation1999, 69. 39. Woost Citation1990, 1993. 40. Woost Citation1993. 41. Brow Citation1996

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