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Abstract Students: John Glaunert, Marsha Hermanson, Stephan Janke and Tara Wright Faculty Mentors: Stephen Spina, Philosophy and Religious Studies and Rita Webb, Academic Advising An International Fellows Program of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Students: John Glaunert, Marsha Hermanson, Stephan Janke and Tara Wright Faculty Mentors: Stephen Spina, Philosophy and Religious Studies and Rita Webb, Academic Advising An International Fellows Program of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Faith in Action: Exploring the Impact of Interfaith Service on Social Cohesion in Sri Lanka Citations: Dennis, S., Gaulocher, S., Carpiano, R., Brown, D. (2009) Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM): Exploring an Integrated Method for Health and Place Research with Young People, Health & Place, 15: 466-473. Hahn, C. (2008). Doing Qualitative Research Using Your Computer: A Practical Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. 1. Start with Shared Action for the Common Good 2. Shared Action Builds Relationships of Trust 3. Being in Relationship Deepens Dialogue How Social Cohesion Can Be Built Through Interfaith Service Which Diminishes Fear and Achieves Tangible Outcomes Which Grows Courage and Confidence Which Deepens Commitment, Encourages Leadership, Transforms Communities The significance of religion as a social and political force has grown more pervasive and persuasive on both national and international levels in the last decade. While it can arguably be considered one of the most potent sources for human good, its use for polarization, conflict, prejudice and hatred is well documented and on the rise through various forms of religious fundamentalism. International Fellows Program funding supported a 3-week research and service immersion experience in June 2012 to explore the potential social and political strengths of religious pluralism in the post-war context of Sri Lanka, where expressions of all the worlds major religions are present. (See Figure 1 below) Using the qualitative action research tool of Participatory Photo Mapping, the team studied perceptions of the impact on inter-religious relationships of shared efforts to alleviate social needs, how faith traditions motivate social action in the world, and what commonalities exist across varied sources of religious authority. They participated in village service projects with the countrys largest indigenous and interfaith social service organization in Sri Lanka and interviewed religious and community leaders to identify factors or obstacles working to undermine the ideal of interfaith cooperation and long-term peaceful coexistence in Sri Lanka. The overall research objective was to explore the role of interfaith cooperation in building social cohesion in post-war Sri Lanka. This qualitative research project was designed within the phenomenological framework that comes out of philosophy. The overall purpose of the research approach is to describe certain aspects of participants experience related to some significant phenomenon in their lives--in this case, a group of peoples lived religious experience within the daily life of their communities. Researchers did not want to impose pre- conceived notions of what either religious practice or interfaith cooperation might look like, but did formulate four basic questions to guide their observations. The preponderance of coded statements related to Question 4--continuing obstacles to social cohesion Sri Lanka faces. The current post-war context is a struggle for many people at all levels of society that demands negotiation among many overlapping national identitiespolitical, ethnic, religious, lingual, and geographical. How Sri Lankans engage these various identities, many of which can serve as catalysts for conflict, could well portend whether or not Sri Lanka is able to establish a just and permanent peace in which the rights and opportunities for all its people are secured for the longer term. Specific barriers, many fear-based, stand in the way of interfaith cooperation and include: incomplete engagement with the process of truth and reconciliation of wartime events, historical and on-going political tensions between ethnic and religious groups, lack of awareness and education (including of the other), and geographical and cultural/linguistic isolation. The last two, in particular, were observed in the two villages where we carried out the PPM research, as both were almost entirely homogeneous in their ethnic and religious composition, that is, they were Sinhalese/Buddhist villages. In this contentious but highly religious culture, many Sri Lankans currently recognize and articulate that interfaith cooperation is key if the country is to achieve greater social cohesion. With the four major world religions well represented in Sri Lanka, it will likely take the cooperative leadership of all the religions to listen to, validate and integrate their devotees viewpoints; to educate and motivate them to live by a Higher Law, underscoring common commitments within their respective traditions to mercy and compassion, peace and justice, as well as to those spiritual practices which inspire their ongoing value. These religious leaders can also best educate their adherents on the crucial practical advantages of working together across all lines of identification on issues of common need. From our own experiences using the PPM methodology at the village level, people seem very willing to interact and cooperate in an interfaith context. According to the cultural practices observed, many even combine religious practices from more than one tradition, but they often lack the opportunity for more frequent or deeper engagement due to geographical and demographic constraints. The promise and potential of interfaith cooperation in Sri Lanka is therefore significant and can best be initiated when people come together across differences and engage in shared action for the common good, thereby unfolding a virtuous circle of internal and external transformation (See Figure 3 above) Through shared action, relationships of friendship and trust can be built and fear of the other diminishes. This movement toward greater connection and increasing commitment grows the courage to risk deepening levels of dialogue and engagement, which over time can transform both individuals and communities. Buddhism: 67% Hinduism: 18% Christianity: 7.5%Islam: 7.5% Research Method 2: Religious/Civic Leader Interviews Step One: Thirteen interviews with religious and civic leaders were recorded related to their perceptions of and experiences with interfaith cooperation within Sri Lanka. Step Two: Interviews were transcribed into text files and collated into Excel spreadsheets. Step Three: Significant statements were analyzed and coded according to relevance to themes reflected in the four key research questions. (Hahn, 2008)Conclusions Research Method 1: Participatory Photo Mapping Project (PPM) Participatory Photo Mapping (PPM) is a qualitative research tool (Dennis et al, 2009) that consists of a 3- step participatory process through which we explored and helped people document the WHAT, the WHERE, and the HOW and/or WHY of their lived religious experience and interfaith engagement. Step One: The What Researchers and villagers participated in shared service work in two different villages based on needs identified by villagers. Through service work, student researchers built initial relationships of trust and used the connections made to identify participants for the Participatory Photo Mapping project. Four students partnered with four individuals and asked them to take them on a tour of their village and to take photos of things that are important to them in their daily lives. Step Two: The Where Students with GPS units accompanied participants around village as they took photos around the village. Later, students mapped photos onto GPS tracks ( See Figure 2 below) to cross- reference each photo with its geographical significance in relation to photos taken by other participants. Step Three: The How/Why In addition to insights gained during the tour of the village, student researchers interviewed participants on select photographs and analyzed the interview transcripts in light of the four key research questions. By initiating relationships through shared services, trust and confidence developed between villagers and foreign researchers, despite the relatively short time-frame. And then by looking at peoples religious experience in their community from these three vantage pointspictures, community maps, and narratives--student researchers were able to construct a more complete picture of participants lived religious experience and where interfaith engagement happensor could happen--in their communities. Note: Villages were selected prior to our arrival by our local coordinating partner organization, the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement. Both villages selected were virtually 100% Buddhist so the original research design of mapping more than one religion and documenting their cross-religious cooperation within one village was not possible. Insight into cross-religious cooperation therefore came primarily through interviews, meetings, literature reviews, and discussions with villagers and various religious and civic leaders, rather than through the PPM methodology. Research Questions 1.How do people perceive the impact on inter-religious relationships of undertaking shared efforts to alleviate identified social needs? Does positive regard for the other grow or strengthen as a result of these efforts? 2.How do represented faith traditions claim or appear to motivate social action in the world among their devotees? 3.What commonalities are discerned to exist across varied sources of religious authority and practice? 4.What are the factors or obstacles that work to prevent the ideal of interfaith cooperation, positive social change, and peaceful coexistence? World Religions Represented in Sri Lanka Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Sri_Lanka Village 1: GPS Tracks and Select Images for Uva Kudaoya village in Moneragala District (southeast Sri Lanka) Village 2: GPS Tracks and Select Images for Godathale village in Kandy District (central highlands of Sri Lanka) Acknowledgements: We thank the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka for coordinating our research and service experience in Sri Lanka; the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, the Center for International Education, and the Service Learning Office for supporting this research through the International Fellows Program at UWEC; the Geography Department for use of their GPS units and assistance with our PPM project; Accounting and Finance Department for the use of their flip cameras for recording interviews; and Learning & Technology Services for training and support. Further research is needed to: a) Identify specific villages where such a virtuous cycle has taken root to document and analyze the processes followed, which could then be shared with other communities to help build stronger national social cohesion. b) Document and disseminate best practices as already implemented by specific civil society organizations, such as the National Peace Council and the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, which are both inter-religiously based and at the forefront of such national efforts. Figure 3 Figure 1 Figure 2 Research Objective Research Objective A video of this project, made by student researcher John Glaunert, can be viewed on our groups blog site at: http://www.ifpsrilanka.tumblr.com/