1. 19th AMIC Annual Conference Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers Identity Politics, Youth Engagement and ICTs in Sri Lanka Shaseevan Ganeshananthan, Researcher Beyond Borders, Sri Lanka

2. Contents 1 Research Methods 2 Research Findings 3 Challenges 4 Solutions 5 Impact Plan 6 Project Milestones 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

3. 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 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

5. First group - young people who actively used the Internet to engage in civic activities, including activists, NGO participants, and online opinion leaders

6. Second group - youth who had a special interest in political engagement and do not have to be experienced Internet users. 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

7. Research Findings

8. Civic, Communal & Political Activities CivicActivities 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 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

9. Civic, Communal & Political Activities PoliticalActivities 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 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

10. 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 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

12. Political studies are not encouraged in school-level

13. Until university entry their activities are bound to basic education and school-level social activities only

14. Activities are more towards professionalism rather than from a volunteer perspective19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

15. Institutions & Youth Engagement Mostopen 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 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

16. Use of ICTs for connecting with Institutions Governmentwebsites 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 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

17. Types of ICTs Used Laptops Computers HSDPA modems Mobile phones, 3G phones Internet cafes, Hotspots Digital Voice Recorders, Video Recorders Digital Cameras 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

19. 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 identities Youth 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

20. 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.

21. 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

22. Project Milestones 19th AMIC Annual Conference – Technology & Culture : Communication Connectors & Dividers

23. Thank You