Study Population and Methodology

To be young is to be a pioneer to the society. (Young man, interview March 2010)

In Sri Lanka, adolescence is commonly defined as the period between 16 and 30 years of age. It is generally understood as characterized by dependency rather than being an individual with a personal identity, with agency, and with rights.

Young people are still perceived as youths in the traditional sense until the time they marry. During the research for the study on which this chapter is based, participants themselves identified youths as those between the ages of 15-30 years. The term “youth” is imbued with different meanings in different locations in Sri Lanka and the definition should not simply be limited to age. The sociocultural context in which young people live must also be taken into account, as experiences of young people within the war-affected areas vary, depending on their gender, religion, and ethnicity, whether they were combatants or noncombatants and whether they were displaced persons. The chapter focuses on some of the experiences that Tamil youth express as a minority in Sri Lankan society, having grown up in the war zone of Eastern Sri Lanka.

The ethnic composition of the population in Sri Lanka as a whole is uncertain, but drawing on the 2011 census, the commonly cited proportions are 74.9% Sinhalese, 11.2% Sri Lankan Tamils, 9.2% Muslims, and 4.2% Indian Tamils, with the balance made up of other groups, including Burghers, Malays, and indigenous groups (Department of Census and Statistics 2012). In the Eastern District of Batticaloa, the majority of people are Tamil and people tend to live in ethnically segregated towns, villages, and neighborhoods.

The material used to analyze young Tamils’ experiences and how they navigate the volatile landscape of war and postwar consists of interviews, life history interviews, and discussions with groups of youth, as well as interviews with representatives for organizations and institutions working with young people.

Fieldwork and follow-up interviews were conducted between 2009 and 2014. Despite the end of war, the areas in which fieldwork was undertaken were still militarized and people there continued to fear for their safety. In such circumstances, the ethical considerations required for understanding researchers’ responsibilities become crucial in order not to cause harm. The measures taken during fieldwork to maintain safety of research participants and researchers alike have been described extensively elsewhere (Azmi et al. 2013; Brun 2013; Lund 2012). In short, safe spaces were enabled by encouraging the young people to help in determining where interviews could be held and what could be talked about. To maintain anonymity, the locations where the fieldwork took place were not disclosed, but the areas under study represented both urban and rural areas, areas formerly controlled by the LTTE, areas affected by war and the presence of LTTE, and areas with little LTTE influence that were nevertheless affected by war. The names given to interviewees in the following sections are pseudonyms.

<< | >>

↑

Source: Harker C., Horschelmann K. (Eds.). Conflict, Violence and Peace. Springer,2017. — 456 p.. 2017

Study Population and Methodology

More on the topic Study Population and Methodology: