Intersectionality and Everyday Peace in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is often referred to as a deeply divided country. This perpetuates a narrative of habitual violence and enduring conflict along vertical social divisions of ethnicity and religion. It also creates a binary of deeply divided vs. homogenous societies. Existing literature on Sri Lanka focuses mainly on conflict and violence. Yet, every day, people from all communities interact and form relationships at workplaces, neighbourhoods and markets. Existing literature does not explain the variation in the interactions and relationship practised by the same community nor the positive relationships that cut across these dominant divisions. The everyday peace lens directs attention to this complex reality of conflict-affected societies from critical peace and conflict studies. Applying an intersectional analysis of multiple horizontal social divisions of gender, class and caste and other power structures that shape everyday peace, this thesis explains the alternative connections that cross ethnic and religious fault lines. The thesis uses the concept of multiplexity to illustrate the layered nature of everyday peace further. Taking Sri Lanka as a case study, the research uses data from life story narratives and focus group discussions to reveal how different social divisions shape everyday peace. Furthermore, these alternative connections unravel that shared values inform interactions and relationships in conflict affected societies. Thus, the study introduces the concept of value-based communities as a facet of intersectional everyday peace. These approaches challenge the binary of deeply divided and homogenous societies and underscore the need to incorporate horizontal social divisions when peacebuilding in "deeply divided" societies.