This study investigates the desalination needs and available technologies in Sri Lanka. Lack of rainfall, pollution due to agricultural chemicals, presence of fluoride, increasing demand, exploitation of ground water and brackishness have created scarcity of fresh pure water specially in near costal and dry zones in Sri Lanka. Due to Cronic Kidney Disease (CKD) around 500 people died in dry zones annually which is suspected to cause by Arsenic and Cadmium contain in ground water due to agriculture chemicals.   The available desalination methods are Reverse Osmosis (RO), Solar distillation and conventional methods. The cost for RO is Rs.0.10 cents per liter and solar distillation Rs.2.96 per liter. Although the price shows that the RO is better but due to high initial investment as a third world country it is very difficult to afford huge initial investment without government intervention. The experimental solar desalination units only produce nearly 5liters of potable water per day and directly impacted by availability of solar radiation. The energy availability of Sri Lanka and future potable water demand predicted as 2188.3 Mn liters as maximum demand which will be in 2030, therefore by that time the government should have a proper plan to cater the demand and desalination plants need to be planned and built based on the demand of dry zones and specially agriculture areas.   The applicability of renewable energy for desalination in local arena was also simulated taking the Delf Reverse Osmosis plant for the simulation. Results show that the optimum design is combination of Solar PV and existing 100kW Diesel generator Set with Battery bank and converter.

The thesis deals with the ethnic conflict on Sri Lanka from the point of view of the constructivist theory of identity and cultural schemes. The history of the island is explained through this attitude, particulary an impact of colonization on a local society and on contruction of ethnic identities. At the end, the main causes of the conflict are pinpointed, possible future provisions are recommended and the current situation is assessed.

This thesis “Inherently Hybrid: Contestations and Renegotiations of Prescribed Identities in Contemporary Sri Lankan English Writing” examines work by Nihal de Silva, David Blacker and Vivimarie VanderPoorten to analyse their negotiation of identity, belonging and citizenship within contemporary Sri Lankan English Writing. This negotiation of identity is then placed in relation to the Eelam Wars as well as hybridity and cosmopolitanism, which have become a part of Sri Lankan identity because of the nation’s postcolonial past. Genre and form are employed as ways into exploring the tensions within Sri Lankan English writing, especially because they prescribe on the texts selected a specific way of approaching and presenting the ethnic conflict that is a widespread theme in much of contemporary Sri Lankan writing. The first chapter looks at De Silva’s adventure romance The Road From Elephant Pass. It examines how the novel engenders a renegotiation of identities through the effects of the ethnic conflict upon the attitudes, behaviours and ideologies of the island’s populations, symbolically represented through the narrator, who is a Sinhalese Buddhist officer in the Sri Lankan Army and his eventual lover, who is a rebel fighting for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. I analyse the arguments presented in the text around identity, belonging and patriotism and focus on the representations of ethnic and racial identity that ultimately expose the constructedness of these various positions, revealing the unacknowledged but real hybridity of the Sri Lankan peoples. I look at markers of cultural capital and tease out how class identities rely on cosmopolitanism, characterised by a knowledge of English, and how that further reveals the performativity of identity. The second chapter examines Blacker’s political thriller A Cause Untrue. Here I explore how the use of detail and description provides an appearance of imparting a complete and realistic perspective on the war. I demonstrate how the novel, through the calculated use of what I will characterise as a ‘reality effect’, takes on the manifestation of being an authority on the war. Blacker’s use of recognisable historical events allows him to create an alternative narrative of history, one that has all the hallmarks of being a true retelling even as it is apparent that his text utilises the ‘reality effect’ to imagine Sri Lanka creatively. This demonstrates how the selection of the thriller genre provides Blacker with a specific way of representing the nation and its diasporas’ in relation to the Eelam Wars. The third chapter focuses on VanderPoorten’s collection of poetry nothing prepares you. Here I investigate how the concepts of hybridity and cosmopolitanism are located within the language used to construct her poetry. I explore how this hybridity and cosmopolitanism of language works together with the form and content of her poems to provide a disquieting of fixed notions of identity, citizenship and belonging. The conclusion to the study revisits the issues that my three chapters deal with, bringing together an overall account of hybridity, cosmopolitanism and identity. I look at the constructedness and performance of identity with the aim of providing a nuanced reading of the renegotiations of identity and citizenship that are taking place because of the ethnic conflict. By summing up the different manifestations of the various gendered, ethnic and class identities represented and presented in the texts that I explore, I illustrate the wider implications of the points of connection between identity and power on the one hand and nationalism, dogma and political rhetoric on the other. Identities within the Sri Lankan nation blur the distinctions between alien and citizen, between one who belongs and subscribes to set expectations, norms and practices and one who challenges these markers of identity.

This thesis, “Re-visioning a Discipline: Martin Wickramasinghe’s Contribution to Comparative Literature,” explores the comparative approach of Martin Wickramasinghe, the pioneering twentieth-century Sri Lankan novelist, literary-cultural critic, and journalist. Wickramasinghe drew on Sinhala folk and classical, Pali, Sanskrit, and Western literary traditions, especially those of England, and Russia. His comparative approach had two main principles: First, literary concepts do not belong to any literary culture on the basis of their origin. Second, any concept that exists in a given literary culture can be “remoulded” and incorporated by another culture. The rejection of the notion of origin-based ownership of literary concepts and the reformulation of literary concepts as phenomena that may be circulated among literary cultures create a hierarchy-less base for comparison. In creating his comparative approach, Wickramasinghe problematized the binaries of local and metropolitan, village and city, and national and international. I examine his comparative approach by analyzing, first, his re-interpretations of the concepts of reader and grāmyatā (vulgarity). For example, Wickramasinghe challenged the elitism of Sanskrit literary theoretical conceptions of the reader and vulgarity. Second, I discuss how he “remoulded” different literary concepts in his theoretical writings and fiction. For example, he created a concept of realism that drew on classical Sinhala narratives as well as Western literature and theory. In this thesis, I place Wickramasinghe’s comparative approach in conversation with postcolonial scholarship such as that of Dipesh Chakrabarty, Simon Gikandi, Revathi Krishnaswamy, Gayathri Spivak, and S. Subramaniam. Wickramasinghe’s comparative approach provides us new insights on how to compare different literary cultures without ascribing hierarchical values to these cultures. He rejected the binaries of colonial and postcolonial Sri Lanka and, instead, situated himself in a liminal position. His writings illumine how Pali, Sanskrit, and European metropolitan literary traditions all impacted Sinhala literary culture in different historical periods. Wickramasinghe focused on how Sinhala literary culture appropriates literary concepts from other literary traditions rather than on the traditions themselves.

No description available.

Idén till denna uppsats tog sin början i en kyrka i Kandy, i centrala Sri Lanka, i januari 2019. Två präster från Svenska kyrkan och jag hade varit på besök i landet och vi skulle avsluta vår vistelse med att fira högmässa i anglikanska St. Paul’s Church på trettondedag jul. Efter gudstjänsten fick vi under kyrkfikat möjlighet att sitta ned med kyrkoherden och diskutera religionsdialog. Något som blev tydligt för mig under samtalet var hur ifrågasatt den kristna minoriteten i landet är. St. Paul’s Church byggdes under den brittiska kolonialtiden och ligger vägg i vägg med Sri Lankas viktigaste buddhisttempel – Sri Dalada Maligawa. Marken som omgärdar templet är omstridd och församlingen har fått utstå flera verbala och fysiska attacker från buddhister som inte velat ha kyrkan på den mark som britterna tog ifrån dem under 1800-talet. Kyrkoherdens berättelse fick mig att vilja undersöka situationen närmare – hur ser relationen mellan kristna och människor av annan trosuppfattning egentligen ut? Eftersom jag är student erbjöd han sig att kontakta ett teologiskt college i centralprovinsen för att jag skulle få möjlighet att själv undersöka hur studenter och lärare arbetar med frågan. Sri Lanka har med sin mångreligiösa miljö givit världen flera pionjärer inom religionsdialog. Aloysius Pieris – jesuitpräst och grundare av Tulana Research Center for Encounter and Dialogue, Wesley Ariarajah – Kyrkornas världsråds sekreterare för interreligiösa relationer och Lynn de Silva – tidigare vid Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue i Colombo, är några av dem. Att ägna sig åt religionsdialog i en kontext där man som samfund befinner sig i minoritet borde vara viktigt för att kunna samexistera, tänkte jag. Min egen bild av begreppet är att religionsdialog handlar om konstruktiva interaktioner över religionsgränser där människor försöker nå en ömsesidig förståelse av sin religiösa nästa för att i förlängningen främja fred mellan människor av olika trosuppfattningar. Ekumenik handlar för mig om relationer i samarbete och bön mellan kristna. Mina uppfattningar kom att utmanas under resan tillbaka till Sri Lanka i augusti samma år. Det blev början på en tid som kom att ge mig nya perspektiv och erfarenheter som resulterade i denna uppsats.

Syfte: Kapitalmarknaden använder hållbarhetsbetyg likt ESG för att utvärdera företags hållbarhetsprestation. Grundidén bakom hållbara investeringar är att kapital ska tillfalla hållbara företag. Ifall ESG inte återspeglar företags hållbarhetsprestationer kan det leda till att världens kapitalallokering blir felaktig. Tidigare studier framhäver att ESG-betygens relevans och validitet kan ifrågasättas. Studien testar ifall företagsstorlek påverkar ESG-betyget och ifall betyget återspeglar benägenheten för företag att utsättas för sociala kontroverser. Om större företag erhåller högre ESG-betyg på grund av storleken eller andra nära relaterade faktorer till storlek, bör de löpa en mindre risk att utsättas för sociala kontroverser än mindre företag.  Metod: Studien är kvantitativ och följer den positivistiska forskningsfilosofin med en deduktiv ansats. 3978 publika företag med ett ESG-betyg världen över har studerats under perioden 2016-2020. Studien är longitudinell och använder sig av sekundärdata från databasen Refinitiv Eikon. Data har bearbetats i Microsoft Excel och testats/analyserats i statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS.  Resultat och slutsats: Studien visar att det inte förekommer övervägande signifikanta samband mellan sociala kontroverser och sociala ESG-betyget samt ESGC-betyget. Vidare indikerar resultatet att större företag mätt i antalet anställda utsätts för fler sociala hållbarhetskontroverser, medan de totala tillgångarna påvisar ett svagare samband. I hänseende till storlek framhäver resultatet ett positivt samband mellan företagsstorlek och karaktärsdrag hänförliga till storlek med ESGC-betyget. Studien finner inget övervägande bevis för att ESG-betyget inte återspeglar företags hållbarhetsprestation, utan ställer sig istället kritisk mot tidigare gjorda studier inom området.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien finner att olika variabler ger differentierade svar på frågeställningarna. Tidigare studier har påvisat att ESG är ett aggregerat mångdimensionellt begrepp där skevheter kan förekomma vid testandet av variablerna. I enlighet med tidigare forskning överensstämmer resultaten med att det inte är optimalt att studera en dimension av ESG och sedan göra jämförelser med hela ESG-betyget. Företags benägenheten att utsättas för sociala kontroverser i samband med att de blir större får två olika resultat i studien baserat på ifall företagsstorleken mäts i totala tillgångar respektive antalet anställda. I den sociala dimensionen av ESG kan antalet anställda vara ett mer representativt mått eftersom det är i samband med människor kontroverser och problem kring social hållbarhet uppstår.  Förslag till fortsatt forskning: ESG består av tre huvudpelare. Denna uppsats fokuserar på den sociala dimensionen av ESG, ett förslag till vidare forskning är därför att fokusera på styrning eller miljömässiga dimensionen av betyget. Detsamma gäller för kontroverserna. De flesta kontroverser tillhör den sociala dimensionen men det finns flertalet kontroverser inom de andra pelarna. Avslutningsvis kan en studie likt denna göras med annorlunda mätinstitut för ESG-betyget och exempelvis en annan databas för att testa kvalitetskriterierna.

River sand mining from the Maha Oya is the main source of income and a force that drives economic activity for residents along the river. This study takes place in Sri Lanka, there are three villages included in this project: Jambugaswatte, Janituspuraya and Thoppuwa. In Sri Lanka, sand serves as the main building material. It is used to make bricks, tiles, asphalt and concrete, therefore demanding a high market value. However, the over-extraction of sand comes along with significant environmental problems. These communities depend on the river in many ways and the health of the river directly corresponds to the health of the ecosystem as a whole. Along the Maha Oya two important elements of survival are in conflict with one another: residents simultaneously need a healthy, thriving ecosystem to live in, as well as economic opportunities. With support from the Environmental Foundation Ltd. (EFL)--a Sri Lankan environmental justice NGO--this study focuses on the complex situation with sand mining on the Maha Oya. Data for this study comes from fifteen formal interviews with a Sinhala-English translator. These interviews are used to address the two research questions for this project: how do village residents along the Maha Oya perceive sand mining? And what are the emotional, practical and theoretical responses of village residents to the effects of sand mining on their local ecosystems? In order to envision a sustainable future, it is vital to begin with a clear understanding of community perceptions of these complex issues, which are at the heart of this project.

In conflict-affected and divided societies, citizenship education has gained considerable attention for its potential to promote democratic peace and address issues of identity and societal divisions. This study demonstrates the vital role of gender equality for social cohesion by illustrating how aspects of inclusive democratic citizenship needed for social cohesion are undermined by hierarchical social relations and harmful masculinities fostered through the patriarchal aspects of education and schooling. This inquiry examines if and how policies for social cohesion through education, specifically citizenship education, contribute to peace in conflict-affected Sri Lanka, a county plagued by 30 years of war. Through a document analysis of the grade 6-9 citizenship textbooks, interviews and surveys with teachers and students, and classroom and school observations, this study explores how policies related to education for social cohesion are appropriated and enacted within schools and classrooms and how students consequently understand their role as citizens in a conflict-affected society. The study design is a transformative design mixed methods study of 13 schools across four provinces in post-war Sri Lanka. Using a post-colonial feminist approach, this study draws conclusions on how gender roles and relations intersect with citizenship education and its potential to contribute to gender transformative peacebuilding. Qualitative and quantitative findings reveal that attitudes on gender equality are closely related to attitudes on social cohesion. Many of the factors associated with patriarchy, including harmful masculinities, not only reduced gender equality, but they also undermined the egalitarian foundations of democracy needed for peace and social cohesion. However, when educators were able to engage in practices that fostered the knowledge and skills to empathize across differences (gender, ethnic, and religious) and build egalitarian relationships, they fostered inclusive democratic citizenship among students and contributed to social cohesion. At the same time, results indicate that education’s capacity to promote social cohesion, through the formal and informal curriculum, is limited due to a state-centric belligerent approach to citizenship and citizenship education, which is primarily focused on developing a personally responsible citizen.

No description available.