M.MAS 7/22/15 The interview approach described above was designed to open a conversation about concerns related to religious conflict, while seeking to avoid presuming that this was a salient issue for narrators. Whether or not we succeeded in keeping the conversation wholly open – and whether or not such an encounter is ever possible – our interest was not in ascertaining or quantifying a particular ranking of national or local concerns and locating religious conflict therein.. Instead, we wanted to create an environment that was conducive to generating open conversations about the issue of conflict and provide a sense of how conflict is present within the fluctuating constellation of concerns that any person has at a given time Research findings and analysis It should be no surprise that we heard a diverse array of issues raised, but we can also see clear patterns. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the diversity of those concerns narrators chose as their ‘largest’ or ‘number one,’ – acknowledging that we have also done some work to collapse related but distinct issues into single categories, such as categorizing topics that were described as ‘violence against Muslims/Buddhists,’ ‘religious harmony,’ ‘the Bengali case,’ etc., into ‘religious conflict.’ Rather than present a tally of issues ranked, which implies a survey with a pre-defined set of categories, the tables below are designed to present those topics raised and foreground the similarities and differences between cities without creating the impression that we designated any set of issues for discussion, though narrators may have assumed we had interests and tailored their responses thusly. Figure 2. Primary national concerns Lashio Civil war/ national peace ID cards/ citizenship Religious conflict Mandalay Civil war/ national peace Meiktila Civil war/ national peace Mawlamyine Religious conflict Religious conflict Religious conflict Health Education Livelihoods/ economy Pathein Civil war/ national peace Sittwe Civil war/ national peace ID cards/ citizenship Religious conflict Health Education Livelihoods/ economy 2015 elections/ democracy Education Education Livelihoods/ economy 2015 elections/ democracy Livelihoods/ economy 2015 elections/ democracy 2015 elections/ democracy Fire As might be expected, primary concerns highlighted by narrators reflecting on their local areas encompass a wider array of issues. Figure 3. Primary local concerns Lashio Civil war/ national peace ID cards/ citizenship Mandalay Civil war/ national peace Meiktila Mawlamyine Civil war/ national peace Pathein Sittwe Education Education Drugs Land Education Land Education Education 6