Depoliticizing space in Sri Lanka: The discursive utility of the child during times of war

This research investigates the role of tropes of the child in the politicization and depoliticization of national spaces during the Sri Lankan civil war in two case studies. The first case examines the production of humanitarian space in Sri Lanka in the form of annual ceasefires for children called "Days of Tranquility" (DOTS). The DOTS were designed to create temporary nonpolitical spaces in support of "National Immunization Days" (NIDs), an immunization strategy conducted as part of the global Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI). The second case investigates political discourse associated with underage military recruitment (i.e. child soldiers).; A variety of ethnographic techniques were employed during fieldwork in Sri Lanka from August 2001 to July 2002, including participant observation, semi-structured interviewing, and document compilation. Approximately 60 in depth interviews were conducted with United Nations agencies staff, Sri Lankan government officials and those working for international and national non-governmental organizations. Observations from the 2001 DOTS at three Sri Lankan sites between September and October 2001 were also chronicled.; The examples in the dissertation provide ample evidence that tropes of the child are particularly effective at enhancing or diminishing political legitimacy. The case of the DOTs demonstrates that actors supporting nonpolitical humanitarian spaces can represent themselves as morally fit to govern even where there is scant evidence that nonpolitical spaces are actually produced. Child soldier narratives demonstrate the power of child tropes to stigmatize and shame political actors. In both of these cases, international organizations that advocate for global child rights provide a critical link between internal conflict and domestic political actors, and international public opinion.; This research provides original material on the construction of humanitarian space, particularly as a space of diverse organizational interrelations as well as the goals set by individual actors and in combination. This analysis will contribute to ongoing debates within political geographic and international relations literatures concerned with territorial sovereignty, humanitarian actors and spaces, and transnational relations. In addition, by examining the political significance of conceptions of children in modern life, this project contributes to scholarship on children and geography, as well as children in cross-cultural perspective.