Crisis in the Israeli Kibbutz: Meeting the Challenge of Changing Times

(Hardback)

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Kibbutz society is experiencing major change. Economic crises that erupted ten years ago have transferred into major social and ideological crises. The underlying debate is about what values should govern kibbutzism, as collectivism and altruism clash with individual and egocentric values in offering policies and directions for the future of the kibbutz society. An important result of the changes is the irrelevance of much past research about kibbutzism. This book updates that research. With chapters by scholars of the kibbutz, this book not only updates knowledge of this innovative society, but also draws parallels to changes occurring in the West. This collection should be of particular interest to scholars and researchers of the kibbutz and the cooperative phenomenon, and those interested in alternative approaches to aging, education, management and women's studies.

Reviews

"For more than 70 years, the kibbutz has been the outstanding example of all the attempts to construct and live a reality based on socialist ideas and principles different from capitalist markets, companies, and social relations....This book is a must for all interested in the kibbutz and its development. It should be of interest, too, to all who consider neo-institutionalism a promising stream of organization theory. And, in a similar vein, it provides material for the discussion about similarities and differences between the governance mechanisms hierarchy, market, and cooperation."-Professor Klaus Bartolke Bergische Universitat Gesamthochschule Wuppertal

Author Bio

URIEL LEVIATAN is Head of the Institute for Social Research of the Kibbutz and Professor of Sociology, University of Haifa, Israel. HUGH OLIVER is former Editor-in-Chief of OISE Press. JACK QUARTER is Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.