ABSTRACT
In this final chapter, I will argue that the ethical / political impulses of women-related (WR) research (to be simultaneously understood as savoir and connaissances) are what constitute feminisms in Sri Lanka. How then are ethics / politics conceptualised and how do they operate in local research? I will discuss how key concepts / approaches of feminist politics and ethics such as altruism, liberal democracy and Marxism are engaged with in local research. I will argue that ethics and politics are also forms of strategy / action and methods at the level of feminist activism – despite the shortfalls in impact and achievement. What then are the practical advantages, challenges and limitations of feminist ethics / politics? This chapter is also my final attempt at reconceptualising the ‘categories’ of
WR research / writing: women, gender and feminisms. Having envisioned women as a global paradigm, and gender as an epistemology, this chapter will argue that ‘feminisms’ is a form of ethics / politics.
