Crisis and transformation : the kibbutz at century's end / Eliezer Ben-Rafael.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ben Rafael, Eliezer.

Series:

SUNY series in Israeli studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kibbutzim.

Physical Description:

xii, 282 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Kibbutz at century's end

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [1997]

Summary:

Examines kibbutz life following the Israeli economic crisis of 1985, focusing on the kibbutz's dramatic transformation from a well-defined social structure to a collective identified principally by its cultural preoccupations.

This book examines kibbutz life following the Israeli economic crisis of 1985, focusing on the kibbutz's dramatic transformation from a well-defined social structure to a collective identified principally by its cultural preoccupations. It centers on the contradictions endemic to kibbutz identity. Ben-Rafael shows how the crisis brought together a general pro-change Zeitgeist with the interests of the kibbutz's stronger social segments and individuals to produce widespread changes and the fragmentation of kibbutz reality as a whole. The book's findings are based on a large-scale research investigation (1991-1994) headed up by Ben-Rafael that included twenty research studies and involved the participation of researchers from diverse social science disciplines. The book also provides a statistical abstract and a comprehensive kibbutz bibliography.

"In the field of kibbutz studies, this will be the most important book of the decade. Anyone with a general interest in Israel is likely to be interested in reading this book as well. The family, gender, education, economy, and polity are handled with a remarkable degree of competence and thoroughness. There are few scholars who could handle so much diverse material as well". -- Raymond Russell, University of California, Riverside

"An important contribution to the study of the kibbutz". -- Menachem Rosner, Institute for Research on the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea, University of Haifa

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-270) and index.

ISBN:

0791432254

0791432262

OCLC:

34471053