The effect of social service elite groups on long-time residents in peripheral development towns in Israel

Cohen, Janet; Billig, Miriam

doi:10.1007/s10708-023-10950-2

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, the National-Religious Movement is attempting to “educate” the non-religious population and has developed Torah-oriented Nuclei (Gar'inim Toraniyim). These are groups of members of the movement, usually young couples, who rent several apartments in low socioeconomic neighborhoods or towns, attempt to be involved in the local community by engaging in volunteer work, and indirectly try to “proselytize” the population to become more religiously observant and nationalist (Cohen and Billig, 2023 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Israel's civil society 2023 from protest to aid provision – a serving elite perspective

Gidron,

Katz

2024

Front. Sociol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The year 2023 in Israel started with illiberal constitutional change efforts by the new right-wing government and concluded with a brutal attack by Hamas terrorists and the subsequent war. Both occurrences galvanized two massive surges of civil society activism. The first was a mass protest that impeded the government's undemocratic legislation. The second was a large-scale mobilization to support a variety of populations affected by the war, providing services and goods that supplanted the failed governmental crisis response. Using a Serving Elite perspective and elaborating on this concept in the Israeli context, the paper analyzes the organizations that transitioned overnight from protest to service delivery. While these are two known roles played by civil society in general, such a transition from protest to support within the same organization is unusual, if at all existent. The paper analyses nineteen (19) in-depth interviews with leaders of 10 prominent organizations active in the protest and the aid phases. It explores their participants, forms of organizing, activities, ideologies, and interconnections, particularly emphasizing the transition. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed the emergence of a new Serving Elite in the making, liberal in orientation, and developed during the crises. This perspective provides an opportunity to highlight processes deeply embedded in Israel's social, political, and cultural landscapes, changing elites and power relations, and Israel's culture of entrepreneurship. It also provides a framework for analyses of serving elites in other countries.

show abstract

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Israel's civil society 2023 from protest to aid provision – a serving elite perspective

Gidron,

Katz

2024

Front. Sociol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The Immigration and Strategic Assimilation of Bene Menashe: A Zomian Jewish Community in Israel

Elazar,

Billig

2024

Asian Studies Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

CROSSING THE LINE: Nationalist Gentrification and Settler Expansion in Israel's ‘Mixed Cities’

Shmaryahu‐Yeshurun,

Monterescu

2024

Int J Urban Regional Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article we point to the intersection between political settlement movements, religion and economic gentrification by identifying a new type of gentrifier who has settled in Israel's mixed cities: the nationalist gentrifier. Against the background of Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005, experienced as a deep crisis in the Zionist‐religious settlement movement, new urban sites of spatial and sociopolitical action emerged. On the basis of interviews, residential participant observation and document analysis, we detail the geographical and sociological context in which nationalist gentrifiers operate in the mixed city of Jaffa and their perceptions and motivations for settlement. Drawing on recent gentrification literature, we show how these actors strategically activate the profiles of the ‘conqueror gentrifier’, the ‘colonizing gentrifier’ and the ‘competitor gentrifier’ vis‐à‐vis different local communities. The new nationalist gentrifiers are distinguished from both the secular liberal gentrifiers and the religious settler movement beyond the Green Line. This sociological hybrid configuration reflects processes of privatization and commodification of space as well as trends of nationalist radicalization prevalent in contemporary Jewish society in Israel. It should also prompt scholars to critically examine both the ethnonational and economic drivers of expansion projects in contested urban spaces.

show abstract

The effect of social service elite groups on long-time residents in peripheral development towns in Israel

Cited by 3 publications

References 46 publications

Israel's civil society 2023 from protest to aid provision – a serving elite perspective

Israel's civil society 2023 from protest to aid provision – a serving elite perspective

The Immigration and Strategic Assimilation of Bene Menashe: A Zomian Jewish Community in Israel

CROSSING THE LINE: Nationalist Gentrification and Settler Expansion in Israel's ‘Mixed Cities’

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About