THE SOCIOLOGY OF MORAL PANICS: TOWARD A NEW SYNTHESIS

There are two alternative theoretical perspectives developed in the sociological study of a moral panic: the moral perspective and the interest perspective. Using as illustration a May 1982 national moral panic about drugs that occurred in Israel, this article argues that both perspectives must be used and integrated into one coherent model for a better and fuller sociological explanation of moral panics. The article provides a detailed account of the Israeli panic and an analysis clustered along two axes. One axis uses the interest perspective to analyze the timing of the panic by focusing on the question of why it happened when it did. The other axis uses the moral perspective to interpret the specific content of the panic, focusing on why the panic was about drugs.     

Confinement Under an Open Sky: Following the Speed Trap from Guernica to Gaza and Beyond

This article explores the global significance of Palestine through a focus on the politics of confinement. Using the work of Paul Virilio and others, I examine the processes of colonization, incarceration, and acceleration that have combined to produce the confining realities of contemporary Palestine. The rhetoric of ‘disengagement’ associated with the dismantling of Israeli settlement colonies in Gaza represents the discursive face of a process through which the Israeli state has cemented its domination of Palestine while rebranding itself as a world leader in the technologies of permanent warfare. Palestine, in this sense, is diagnostic of a larger global system of dromocracy (the rule of speed) that articulates in complex ways with neoliberal capitalism. Within such a system, everyone is subject to the tyranny of speed and to the psychological and moral disorientation it produces.     

Ethnic Coexistence in Deeply Divided Societies: The Case of Arab Athletes in the Hebrew Media

This article examines the various elements affecting reconciliation and coexistence in deeply divided societies through the case of Arab soccer players in the Israeli media. We analyze the discourse surrounding the concept du‐kium (coexistence) in the Israeli media between the years 2002 and 2008. Our findings reveal that Jewish journalists and public figures interpret coexistence as Arab citizens' complete acceptance of the Jewish perspective and narrative. Arab soccer players are expected to underplay their Palestinian identity, master Hebrew, and identify with the Jewish narrative and views. We contrast the Israeli case with two other cases of prolonged conflict—Rwanda and Bosnia‐Herzegovina. The study highlights that cognitive perceptions and schemes may hinder genuine reconciliation even when various groups reject overt racism and profess candid desire for coexistence.     

德鲁兹社团与以色列国家的关系

在以色列生活着13万德鲁兹人,与境内其他阿拉伯人不同,早在英国委任统治时期德鲁兹社团就跟犹太社团有着比较友好的关系,以色列建国后这种关系得到持续发展。从1956年起德鲁兹社团被正式纳入以色列义务兵役制内,与以色列国家结成“血盟”。作为回报,政府向德鲁兹社团承诺了平等和一体化,并利用国家机器,从历史、宗教、教育、习俗等方面促进独立的德鲁兹民族建设,帮助德鲁兹社团构建“以色列一德鲁兹”的身份认同。但由于以色列犹太国家的性质所限,德鲁兹社团的一体化进程面临诸多挑战。     

Samson the Non-European

This article attempts to trace the literary genealogy of a unique Zionist Israeli masculinity through a reading of the biblical story of Samson as portrayed by prominent Israeli figures. Through a close reading of the biblical text in Hebrew, this article posits that the figure of Samson represents a 2-prong individuation process of malehood: one the “everyman” and the other “a man among man.” This slight difference in the Hebrew phraseology, usually assumed to reflect a singular meaning, actually represents an enormous gap between the 2 prongs. A reading of a poem by a female Jewish poet who, in the early 20th century read Samson through the eyes of Delilah, offers a new construction of manhood that could save the Israeli Jewish male from its colonialist ideology and its denial.     

从犹太“岛民文化”透析巴以冲突

犹太人在近2000年饱受磨难的流散生涯中形成的“岛民心态”和“岛民文化”,长久以来影响着犹太人的安全观与生存观,导致以色列政府在阿以冲突问题上过于敏感和偏执,始终坚持强硬立场,使其一次次错失和平良机,并在中东乃至国际社会陷入孤立境地.“岛民心态”和“岛民文化”决定了中东和平进程的长期性、曲折性和复杂性.     

Newspaper Coverage of People with Disabilities in Canada and Israel: an international comparison

In this research study we compared how three Canadian and three Israeli newspapers wrote about people with disabilities over a 3-month period. The comparison included structural variables, such as the length of the articles, where they appeared, whether photographs were used, etc. We also examined content variables, such as who the main character was, the details used to describe this individual or group, and what governmental agencies, service providers and problems were mentioned. Finally, we looked at whether the article was progressive, traditional or mixed in its perspective. Our findings showed a number of significant differences between Canada and Israel. Equally noteworthy, however, were the considerable similarities, such as frequent problems with finances and services, and most of the articles being traditional in focus. The paper concludes with an analysis of the newspaper business and the implications of this for altering the image of disabled people in the media.     

The lesser of two evils: Atypical trajectories in English dialect evolution

Schneider's Dynamic Model of Postcolonial English Development (2007) suggests that distinct local identities and their associated varieties of English emerge as a result of British colonization, and reach maturity only when ties to the colonial power are finally severed. While this developmental trajectory is well documented in many of the case studies discussed in, and since, Schneider (2007), a comparison of Hong Kong and Gibraltar shows, in certain cases, that association with Britain can be seen as the best guarantor of these local identities and varieties of English. The present article sketches this alternate developmental trajectory, and examines under what circumstances it may emerge and how widely it might be applied.     

Love of Land: Nature Protection,Nationalism, and the Struggle over the Establishment of New Communities in Israel

Although there is burgeoning research on environmental activism, few studies have examined the interrelationship between nationalism and nature protection in detail. This article examines how groups manage the tension between national commitment and caring for the environment. It focuses on two opposing Israeli activist groups: a settler movement that aims to establish new communities in the fast-dwindling Israeli open expanses and a “green” movement intent on preserving open spaces. Our observations, interviews, and textual analysis show that both groups believe themselves to be committed to the protection of nature, and that both groups see environmental responsibility as an integral aspect of their Zionist identity. However, the Israeli green movement sees abstaining from interventions in nature and adhering to sustainable development as Zionist because it preserves Israel for future generations. Conversely, the settler movement sees active intervention in nature—by building new communities, planting trees, and hiking—as the proper way to protect Israeli natural expanses and to maintain the livelihood of Israeli society. Our case study demonstrates that, although environmental movements often aspire to universalism, local movements also interlace environmentalism and nationalism in ways that generate multiple (and even contradictory) interpretations of the appropriate way to care for nature.     

The clash between legal and business logic: business groups in the new Israeli corporate law

Planned institutional change presents an uncommon opportunity for institutional entrepreneurs to advance their innovations. The dispute of why the new Israeli corporate law, enacted at the end of 1990s, does not refer to business groups, which form a salient part of Israeli big business, opens a window through which the conflict between two different and competing types of logic may be viewed. The carriers of legal-professional logic were legal academics and state officials, who opposed the inclusion of a special chapter or any other reference to business groups within the new corporate law based on US legal ideas, and especially on the ‘Law and Economics’ perspective. In contrast, the carriers of business logic were interest groups and professional associations that sought to appropriate the legal and economic advantages resulting from organizing business in the form of business groups within the new law, without protecting the rights of minority shareholders and, more importantly, without enabling state agencies to intervene in the governance of their businesses.     

Stepfamilies in Cultural Context

Abstract

The article presents a cross-cultural comparison of stepfamilies. Israeli and American stepfamilies were compared. The samples were similar in socio-demographic characteristics. Using translations of the same instruments, Israeli and American samples were compared for past orientation, acceptance/rejection of difference from non-stepfamilies, focal sub-system, satisfaction and functioning. Similarities and differences between American and Israeli stepfamilies are presented and their association to characteristics of the two societies are discussed. Methodological aspects of conducting cross-cultural research are addressed and directions for future research are suggested.     

The social position and internal organization of the medical profession in the Third World: the case of Singapore

This paper probes two aspects of the medical profession in Singapore: its structure and its social position. The first section reviews the relevant concepts concerning the structure and the social position of the professions that may be applied to medicine in Singapore. The second section looks into the structure of the medical profession in Singapore from an historical perspective. The third section deals with the internal organization of the medical profession. The fourth section focuses on its social position. The paper concludes with a summary of the main points and a brief comparison of the situation in Singapore with that in other countries.     

The impact of the 2nd intifada on Israeli Arab and Jewish social workers

This paper presents an analysis of interviews with Israeli social workers conducted as part of a study investigating the impact of the 2nd Intifada on the work, clients, views and feelings of Israeli Arab and Jewish social workers. The data were generated from 58 interviews with social workers who volunteered to do so. Coming from a sociological perspective, the study focused on how a violent political conflict impacts on two groups of social workers who live and work in the same society, but are likely to have different views about it. Their actions, views, well-being, and values were researched in a context likely to test universal social work values. The findings document a high level of tension and anxiety generated for both groups, very negative impact on clients’ life and views, largely negative effect on welfare services, co-existing with continuous professional development. Social workers’ views of their own national group and the other national group within the Intifada context highlight primarily the empathy with one's own group while lacking in empathy towards the other group, coupled with suspicion and some hostility. The struggle to maintain professional values is expressed only by a minority. The discussion and conclusions look at what social work can learn from the findings in understanding such complex contexts and the response to the challenge they pose to social work.     

Researchers Behind Policy Development: Comparing ‘Age-Friendly Cities’ Models in Quebec and Wallonia

Based on a reflexive method, this article explores the roles of researchers behind Age-Friendly Cities and Environments. Referring to Michael Burawoy's division of sociological work (professional, critical, policy and public sociology), it is structured around the international comparison of two empirical case studies: Walloon region (Belgium) and Quebec (a province of Canada). While the first case shows some difficulties faced by a limited policy sociology perspective with little room for research, the latter presents a more developed public sociology approach with larger involvement from research. If both cases started with policy links, the latter presents a special interest for praxis, through knowledge transfer as an ongoing public dialogue. Based on this comparison, the article concludes with a twofold use of praxis: on one side – knowledge in action – a public sociology position offers an original perspective on what AFC/AFE may mean and produce to avoid a limited field of actions focusing only on some stakeholders or advocates for older people. On the other side – action in knowledge – policy and public sociology question professional and critical sociology facing AFC/AFE programmes: is a purely academic knowledge of such a programme epistemologically realistic or should it necessarily be empirically fuelled?     

Narrow bridges: Jewish lesbian feminism,identity politics,and the “hard ground” of alliance

Abstract

The emergence of Jewish feminism in the late twentieth century produced a contradictory site for engagement with the Israeli state and its claims to both Jewish identity and the territory of historic Palestine. While some mobilizations of Jewish feminist identity politics promoted nationalism, others engaged the self-reflexive mode to question the coherence of group identity, to work against its codification in the state-national form, and to engender empathy and solidarity with targets of both U.S. and Israeli racial states. This essay maps two forms of Jewish feminist praxis: one liberal, normatively white, invested in both heteronormativity and Zionism; the other radical, emerging in close collaboration with women of color feminism, attuned to comparative racial relations, lesbian-led, and saturated with discourse and debate on U.S. and Israeli racism, and Zionism’s connection to Jewish identity.     

Attitudes of New Immigrant and Veteran-Resident Israeli Divorced Mothers Toward Single Motherhood

The aim of the study is to compare the attitudes of immigrant and veteran-resident divorced mothers toward single motherhood. The comparison focuses on two dimensions: personal attitudes and perceived social attitudes. Respondents included 100 divorced mothers who emigrated from the former Soviet Union after 1989 and 100 long-term Israeli divorced mothers. The immigrant divorced mothers, often having divorced following disagreement over the decision to emigrate, are forced to undergo parallel adjustment processes to a new society and to the new lifestyle inherent in single-parent households. Additionally, they are caught between attitudes toward single parenthood in their culture of origin, where divorce is common, and in Israeli culture, where the family plays a much more stable and central role. Results show that veteran-resident divorcees express significantly more favourable personal attitudes toward single motherhood, while immigrant divorcees perceive social attitudes as being more favourable. Immigration was found to affect personal and perceived social attitudes significantly, above and beyond demographic attributes.     

Military,Masculinity, and Citizenship: Tensions and Contradictions in the Experience of Blue-Collar Soldiers

This article seeks to problematize the relationship between military service, masculinity, and citizenship, from the perspective of lower-class soldiers who serve in blue-collar roles in the Israeli military. Introducing class and ethnicity into the “taken for granted” equation of men, military, and the state reveals counter-hegemonic conceptions of masculinity and citizenship, and exposes tense and often contradictory relationships between them.

Based on in-depth interviews, I argue that blue-collar Israeli soldiers simultaneously accept and challenge the hegemonic Zionist conceptions of both masculinity and citizenship. Unlike the combat soldiers, blue-collar soldiers demonstrate gender and national identities that are not anchored in military life. Rather, these soldiers present an alternative version of “home-based masculinity,” which grants the family superiority over the military and the state. This masculinity is expressed through two recurring themes: ongoing resistance to military discipline and authority, and an emphasis on the role of the provider over the role of the soldier. Through these daily military practices, the soldiers express their rejection of the republican “principle of contribution” as a criterion to one's belonging to the collective. However, their conception of citizenship emphasizes a militant ethno-national discourse. The discrepancy between their antimilitaristic practices and their militant patriotism reflects their ambivalent socio-political location in Israeli society between their preferred location as Jews and their marginal location as Mizrachim of lower classes. These ambivalent identities reveal that a mutual affirming connection between the military, masculinity, and the state exists only for hegemonic groups. For non-hegemonic groups, the relationship between masculinity, military, and citizenship is ridden with conflicts and inner contradictions.     

Subjective discount rates among Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews

In this study, we compare the subjective discount rate for Israeli Jews and Arabs. All the subjects were bank customers, who were asked to bid and ask prices for delayed fixed amounts and for lotteries. The two populations live in the same country under the same laws. Nevertheless, according to the literature, Israeli Arabs seem to be a discriminated minority, who exhibit traits of a traditional collectivist culture, while Israeli Jews are a majority, who exhibit traits of an individualistic culture. As a discriminated minority, Israeli Arab may suffer from lower trust and as a result, according to the “trust” hypothesis, exhibit higher subjective discount rates and higher risk aversion. On the other hand, according to the “cushion” hypothesis, a collectivist society such as Israeli Arabs, provides a safety net for the individual and as a result, he will exhibit lower subjective discount rates and lower risk-aversion. The experimental findings show that the subjective discount rate and risk aversion of Israeli Arabs are significantly higher than that of Israeli Jews. Moreover, higher percent of Israeli Jews are at the low range of the discount rates (below 10%) and lower percent of Israeli Jews are at the high range of discount rate (above 20%) compared to Israeli Arabs. This is consistent with the “trust” hypothesis. For Israeli Jews, the discount rates are closer to the bank interest rate, while Israeli Arabs rates are much higher particularly for receipt. The dispersion of the distribution of discount rate is much larger for Arabs than for Jews.     

Factors related to students’ achievements: comparing Israeli Bedouin and Jewish students in college education

This study examined factors contributing to the achievements of Israeli Bedouin and Jewish students in an Israeli college for teacher education. The study employed Tinto’s model and its core concepts of academic and social integration as main explanatory factors for student achievement in an academic institute. Background characteristics were also suggested as potential predictors. Data were collected in an Israeli college for teacher education from 82 Israeli Bedouin and 160 Jewish students at three points in time. Effects of each variable, as well as interaction effects between independent variables (such as socioeconomic background, entrance data) and intermediary variable (social and academic integration) in relation to the dependent variable (achievements) were analysed. Patterns of factors related to achievements of the two groups were compared. The main explanatory variables were matriculation mean grades (14%) and gender (18.3%). A significant interaction effect was found between group and social integration, meaning that only in the Israeli Bedouin group did social integration have a significant effect. Considering the Israeli Bedouin group alone, the matriculation score explained 20% of the variance, gender explained 6.2%, and the rationale for occupational choice explained 5.1%. The results are discussed in the framework of the institutional context and the cultural background of the two groups, also suggesting the need to examine possible institutional actions relating to these findings.