Plantationo(s)cenes: Creative Activism and Sri Lankan Plantation Workers

Yasmin Gunaratnam () and Menaha Kandasamy
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Yasmin Gunaratnam: Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK
Menaha Kandasamy: Independent Researcher, Kandy 20000, Sri Lanka

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: This paper describes the methods of creative activism used by a women-led plantation trade union in Sri Lanka to improve workers’ living and working conditions. We discuss how the feminist idea of “relational humility” is a vital component of how creative activism with plantation workers can work against extractive forms of research and knowledge-making. The paper unfolds in three parts. After setting out our orienting ideas and describing the colonial history of Sri Lankan plantations, we present two examples of unexpected relational humility, first in a workshop and then in a plantation Sunday School. Finally, we suggest the particular value of trade union research in taking up and locating research findings within workers’ self-organised struggles for sustainable living and working conditions.

Keywords: creative activism; colonialism; feminism; methods; plantations; trade unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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