Cox, Laurence (2016) Researching transnational activist lives: Irish Buddhists and the British Empire. Interface : a Journal for and about Social Movements, 8 (2). pp. 171-183. ISSN 2009-2431

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Abstract

This research note explores some methodological challenges arising from biographical research on early Irish Buddhists in the colonial period. It briefly situates the role of such figures in relation to Asian anti-colonial movements and highlights the research challenges posed by multiple languages and countries, the variable preservation and digitisation of different kinds of sources, and the polarisation provoked by such figures. Practical solutions include international collaboration, digitisation, and a combination of quasi-philological precision and quasi-ethnographic understanding. The note highlights three relevant findings: a relativisation of the importance of organisations, a greater appreciation of the meanings of failure, and a historical materialist approach to possibility.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	biography; social movements; religious movements; organising; internationalism; Buddhist Studies; colonialism; pan-Asian; U Dhammaloka;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Item ID:	7746
Depositing User:	Dr. Laurence Cox
Date Deposited:	13 Jan 2017 10:33
Journal or Publication Title:	Interface : a Journal for and about Social Movements
Publisher:	National University of Ireland Maynooth
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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