Identity Politics, Youth Engagement and ICTs In Srilanka

Shaseevan Ganeshananthan, Researcher

Identity Politics, Youth Engagement and ICTs in

Sri Lanka

19th AMIC Annual Conference Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

Beyond Borders, Sri Lanka

Contents

Research Methods1

Research Findings2

Challenges3

Solutions4

19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

Impact Plan5

Project Milestones6

Research Methods

20 In-depth Interviews (Age group 20 -35) Daily youth activities related to civic,

community or political activities Importance of these activities How these activities are related to ICTs Common usage of ICTs Experiences and opinions on political

institutions Use of ICTs for information gathering Views on Identity Politics and Youth

Engagement Gender perspectives Demographics


Research Methods


Focus Groups First group - young people who actively used

the Internet to engage in civic activities, including activists, NGO participants, and online opinion leaders

Second group - youth who had a special interest in political engagement and do not have to be experienced Internet users.

Research Findings

Civic, Communal & Political Activities

Civic Activities Personal activities, Blogging, Photography,

Journalism

Communal Activities Meeting friends Participating in activities in old student

associations Helping poor students in IDPs - conducting

training sessions, providing material Carrying out deliveries (food, clothes) to hospitals

treating IDPs Blood donations Digitizing and Archiving community related

documents, books etc. (Project Noolaham) Participation in different Clubs and Associations Collecting cash for charity projects Media activism


Civic, Communal & Political Activities

Political Activities Intellectual theoretical discussions with scholars

and friends Political writings - Post modernism, literature,

criticism and society related articles Commenting and discussing on articles on

political websites Political activism profiles in Face Book Open source movement as a political oriented

activity


Use of ICTs for these Activities

Civic Emails for discussions , Google groups Blogging – discussions , expressions of ideas and

feedback Internet for Information gathering – statistics, history SMS alerts – news alerts, communicating messages

Communal Using ICT and internet to publicize events & activities

such as through the websites, district websites, the twitter accounts, facebook etc

Charity – finding donors online Digital libraries and archives – Noolaham

Political Political campaigning for elections Advertisements , Posters in facebook


Female involvement is low compared to males

Young adults lack knowledge concerning civic engagement in politics

They think it has to do something with leadership, elections, public meetings

Subject to controversy due to war of the past two decades

General Findings & Issues


Educational constraints Political studies are not encouraged in school-level Until university entry their activities are bound to basic

education and school-level social activities only

Activities are more towards professionalism rather than from a volunteer perspective

Institutions & Youth Engagement

Most open Mass Media - most

encouraging Local and

International NGOs Left oriented

political parties one of the bigger

left party name called JVP reserved 40 percentage of seats for youths.

Least open The Military/Police Political Parties

only for politicians’ relatives and business men

Government Institutions


Use of ICTs for connecting with Institutions

Government websites Information gathering

Examination results, Ministry of Defense, Institutional sites

Operations online are less and inactive

Email facilities to ask queries to government institutions

Express own ideas through social networks, like face book, twitter, orkut, MySpace and collect data/information

NGOs achieve a lot through ICT Websites Dedicated chat engines, weekly chat sessions

at a certain specified time - immediate response online

Face book fan pages, twitter and e-mail addresses


Types of ICTs Used

Laptops

Computers

HSDPA modems

Mobile phones, 3G phones

Internet cafes, Hotspots

Digital Voice Recorders,

Video Recorders

Digital Cameras


Identity Politics

“ Focus upon the self interest and perspectives of social minorities, or self-identified social interest groups” Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim Identity Politics

Tamil youth involvement is very low and risky compared to the majority

Majority influence is a central component of identity politics

Well- educated youth are interested in policy-

based politics


74%

19% 7%

Majority and Minor-ity

Sin-haleseTamils

Youth involvement in libratory,

communist or socialist movements is very low compared to involvement in ethnic related political groups.

Challenges Faced

Difficulty in maintaining gender equality Female participation in political and social

activities are low compared to males Identifying tamil and muslim activists is

difficult due to ethnic identitiesYouth being reluctant to provide own ideas

and views Privacy and security issues

Independent political discourse is low in the democracy space in Sri Lanka due to the past 3 decades of war

Difficulty in maintaining the continuity of interviews

Interviews taken among youngsters under 20

years of age lacked lot of information 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

Solutions

Considered elite society female activists as interviewees

They were more involved in civic & political activities than others

Chose community level activists from tamil and muslim ethnic groups

Since they were not much involved in political activities

Mostly conducted interviews among known activists or through other contacts

Decided to conduct interviews among age groups between 20 and 35.

Impact Plan

Encourage political discussions & usage of modern ICTs in the school level

Mainly focused in participation of all ethnic groups

Hosting radio shows and/or pod-casts on civic engagement in politics and ICTs

Integrating schools, universities and educational institutions through virtual networks

Provide a common platform (common language) for students to communicate and interact

Encourage new ideas and suggestions from students in order to improve interaction through ICTs (bootom-up approach).19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

Project Milestones


• CompleteSigning Contract

• CompleteInitial try of 5 interviews

• Complete10 more interviews

• CompleteFinish all interviews

• Yet to be submittedSubmit all interview documents

• Submitted, need revisions

2nd Technical Report

• CompletePreliminary Data Analysis

• Yet to be doneFocus Group Design

• Yet to be doneInitial try of 2 focus groups

• Yet to be doneFinish all focus groups

• Yet to be done3rd Technical Report

• Yet to be doneSubmit focus group documents

• Yet to be doneInitial analysis of FG data

• Yet to be donePaper writing

• Yet to be doneDissemination

• Yet to be doneFinal Technical Report

Thank You

Documents

Identity Politics, Youth Engagement and ICTs In Srilanka