Polity aims to advance democratic consciousness, gender equality, state reform, and social change in Sri Lanka, while interested in South Asia and the World.
As its predecessor Pravada (1991-2002), Polity is published by the Social Scientists’ Association in Colombo, with critical content on politics, political economy, history, women, ethnicity, sexualities, religion, labour studies, agrarian relations, nationalisms, violence, ecology, and much more.
Slave in a Palanquin: Colonial Servitude and Resistance in Sri Lanka. Nira Wickramasinghe. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020
Reviewed by Paul D. Halliday
“I understood I was to be carried to the country [to] which the ship was going, which was inhabited by giants and...
Nirmani Liyanage (2.2.1988-12.11.2022)
Nihal Perera
“To understand the community I am researching, i.e., the injustice and inequality its members are facing on a daily...
Terror as Stability
B. Skanthakumar
“… stability, no less than revolution, may have its own kind of Terror”[i] Ranil Wickremesinghe has apparently peaked...
Resisting the Liberal Left’s Framing of the Economic Alternative
Shiran Illanperuma
In a recent intervention for Polity, Devaka Gunawardena argues that Sri Lanka’s Old Left failed to theorise the...
Structural Adjustment of Women’s Labour in Agriculture in Sri Lanka
Buddhima Padmasiri
Women’s empowerment through employment is not a new focus for international financial institutions and development...
Meaning and Critique in Women’s Narratives of Care and Work
Nadia Augustyniak
Arguments about the economic benefits of women’s labour participation go hand in hand with assumptions about the...
Current Issue
Out Now! Vol. 13 No. 2 (July – December 2025). 148 pages. #SriLanka. Politics. Cyclone Ditwah. Ecology. Feminism. Education. Justice. Domestic Violence Act. History. Culture. Work. Labour. Books. Cover Picture Sakuna M. Gamage. LKR1000 from the Social Scientists’ Association or Barefoot or SLBOOKS.lk.
Calls
Archive
Pravada (1991-2002) and Polity (2003-) back issues available here.
Social Scientists’ Association
The Social Scientists’ Association (SSA) was founded in 1977, at a turning point in Sri Lankan politics, economy, and society, marked by among other aspects: the ‘open economy’ market reforms; deepening ethnic conflict; and the growing concentration of executive power. Its initiators were academics from public universities, seeking an autonomous space to grapple with these shifts; and to promote progressive political, economic, and social change.