Varieties in developing sustainability: the case of the Israeli kibbutz

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

“…This result may be explained by the wide ideological gap between people belonging to these two statuses, which highlights their differing chosen ways of life in the very same communities in rural areas. Furthermore, Palgi and Getz () suggest that the kibbutz's power to decide who will be admitted into both statuses is a specific factor that endangered community social cohesion. In summary, we find a clear trend suggesting that kibbutzim that did not become involved in the privatization process had more improvement in the indices of sustainability than kibbutzim that adopted the organizational and demographic changes.…”

“…The severe economic crisis in the kibbutzim during the 1980s forced kibbutz members to ask serious questions about their worldview and way of living and challenged the fundamental communal principles of their community. Indeed, it has been argued that the communal way of life and the manner in which it is expressed on a daily basis constitute a major challenge to the sustainability of the kibbutz (Palgi & Getz, ; Rosner & Getz, ; Talmon, ). However, most kibbutz members preferred to transform the kibbutz and the way the community was managed, rather than abandon their home (Ben‐Rafael, ; Rosner & Getz, ).…”

From Generation to Generation: Intergenerational Relations in the Kibbutz

“…They are returning to the community but not to the commune. The sustainability of the community is now the top priority of the kibbutz (Palgi & Getz, 2014).…”

Privatizing Collectivity: The Transformation of the Social and Spatial Forms of the Kibbutz

“…The pioneers of the kibbutzim advocated collective ownership of homes and land, collective labor and collective child-rearing, an ambitious endeavor to create an oasis free of the capitalist mode of production. The socialist impetus was married to Zionist ideals of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine (Abramitzky 2011;Palgi and Getz 2014;Kahana 2015).…”

“…This meant a shift from manufacturing to services, knowledge economy, and finance capital; weakening trade unions; enhanced global trade and speculative "risk investments," including reduced trade-barriers and increasing imports; enhanced emphasis on consumption; individual contracts replacing collective contracts and similar developments familiar from other countries. The process of kibbutz privatization was thus not just a reaction to the debt in conditions of limited alternatives, but also a response to pressures by the government and to demands by some of the kibbutz members to synchronize the structure of the kibbutz with the times and changed values (Palgi and Getz 2014;Ashkenazi and Katz 2009). Already in 1983, sociologist Melford Spiro identified a transition in kibbutz culture and structure from asceticism to consumption, from closed community to a porous, pluralist collectivity, from a focus on external ends (socialism, Zionism) to a focus on the kibbutz itself (Spiro 1983).…”