The Politics of Reconstruction and Development in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka s conflict and peace processes have gained global attention during recent years. This book presents a comprehensive insight into the politics of reconstruction and development in Sri Lanka. Based on extensive empirical fieldwork, it elaborates how development was shaped by interplay and cooperation, but also by the disparities and conflicts between a variety of local and intervening actors, such as local organizations and civil society, LTTE, Government of Sri Lanka, international development cooperation and the Tamil diaspora. Focusing on the ceasefire which was negotiated between the Government of Sri Lanka and the separatist LTTE in 2002 and which lasted until 2006, the author integrates findings from development sociology with new perspectives on the transnationalization and the migration-development-nexus. The book provides a detailed analysis of the emerging development visions and perspectives and makes an innovative contribution by linking the analysis of local reconstruction with contemporary phenomena of transnationalization, diasporization, and globalization.

Eva Gerharz is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Sociology, Transnationalisation and Development Research Centre in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany.