Privatization, demographic growth, and perceived sustainability: Lessons from the Israeli renewing kibbutzim

Abstract

In 2005, the State of Israel established a new classification—renewing kibbutzim. This study examines the relationship between the extent of privatization and the various forms of demographic growth that were permissible under the new classification and their impact on the perceived sustainability of the kibbutz in these communal communities. We collected data at the kibbutz level via interviews with community managers and at the individual level through questionnaires among community members in 19 kibbutzim. We employed the “nearest neighbor” methodology to create pairs who were demographically eligible for a before and after comparison. Although our results about perceived sustainability suggest that kibbutzim across the board have overcome the struggle to survive and have been able to recover, unlike commonly assumed, changes they adopted in the direction of more privatization and diversified statuses are clearly correlated with smaller increases in levels of perceived sustainability. Our findings may offer lessons for wider sociological questions concerning processes of privatization and stratification.

Business Sustainability Strategy in a Cooperative Kibbutz Industry

“…Starting in 1905, young Jewish pioneers began immigrating to Turkish Palestine (later British Palestine), hoping to establish a socialist entity after experiencing the failure and shortcomings of various revolts and revolutions in Russia [34]. Kibbutz ideas wanted to establish equal entity, that take care on the wellbeing of its communal members [26][27][28][29]. Their efforts and the efforts of subsequent immigrants with similar goals led to the establishment of communal villages and eventually the kibbutz movement [27,28].…”

“…After the right-wing Likud Party won the elections of 1977, the government drastically decreased its economic support to the kibbutzim during a period of rampant inflation. At the same time, most kibbutzim were not adjusting fast enough to the neo-liberal surroundings to avoid crisis [28,29]. As a result, many of their economic enterprises collapsed [7,[39][40][41].…”

“…The process of privatization fundamentally changed the kibbutz lifestyle in the "renewed" communities [43]. These kibbutzim still felt a responsibility to their residents, but at a much lower level [28,29]. Contrary to the total cradle-to-grave social services originally provided by the kibbutzim, "renewed" kibbutzim widely varied in the amount of support and social services they offered, relying on the members to be more independent than previously [30][31][32][33][34].…”

“…To cope with these intertwined crises, most kibbutzim underwent a severe process of privatization [27] and re-invented themselves as "renewed kibbutzim" [28]. Privatization also effected the kibbutzim's economic enterprises [7,29,30]. Most of the existing literature after the 1990s has dealt with industries in privatized kibbutzim, but there has been a dearth of research about cooperative industries in traditional kibbutzim.…”