Fantasies of Sri Lankan Undergraduates in Humanities and Social Sciences Disciplines about Their ‘Future Living Geo-spaces’: A Study Based at the University of Ruhuna

In behavioural geography, a distinction exists between the physical geographic space in which people live and the fantasy geographic space in which they mentally aspire to live. The main objective of this study was to analyse the fantasies of Sri Lankan undergradu-ates in the Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines regarding their ‘future living geo-spaces,’ using the University of Ruhuna as the research context. A qualitatively dominant mixed research methodology and an inductive research approach were employed. To collect quantitative primary data, a short questionnaire was given to students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, selected through a simple random sampling method. Qualitative primary data were collected through in-depth interviews with students and individuals who had already migrated to foreign countries, selected using a purposive sampling method. A qualitative explanatory analysis method was used for data interpretation and analysis. The key finding of this study is that the future fantasy living spaces of students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences are predominantly oriented toward capitalist countries. Among those countries, the most prominent are those dominated by Anglo-Saxons and where English is spoken as the primary language. This situation can be interpreted through the theoretical lenses of core-peripheral dependency and the concepts of au-tonomy and hegemony. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that this fantasy pattern is deeply aligned with the theoretical frame-works of behavioural geography. These insights are important for informing public policy formulation and decision-making processes in Sri Lanka.