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/