The Changing Agenda Of Israeli Sociology: Theory, Ideology, And Identity (suny Series In Israeli Studies)

Offers the first systematic and comprehensive overview of sociological thought in Israel, and pleads for a new agenda that would shift the focus from nation building to democratic and egalitarian citizenship formation. This study explores the changing agenda of Israeli sociology by linking content with context and by offering a historically informed critique of sociology as a theory and as a social institution. It examines, on the one hand, the general theoretical perspectives brought to bear upon sociological studies of Israel and, on the other, the particular social and ideological persuasions with which these studies are imbued. Ram shows how the agenda of Israeli sociology has changed in correlation with major political transformations in Israel: the long-term hegemony of the Labor Movement up to the 1967 war; the crisis of the labor regime following the 1973 war; and the ascendance of the right wing to governmental power in 1977. Three stages in Israeli sociology, corresponding to these political transformations, are identified: the domination of a functionalist school from the 1950s to the 1970s; a crisis in the mid-1970s; and the profusion of alternative and competing perspectives since the late 1970s. Ram concludes with a plea for a new sociological agenda that would shift the focus from nation building to democratic and egalitarian citizenship formation. This book offers the first systematic and comprehensive overview of sociological thought in Israel, and by doing so offers a unique interpretation of the social and intellectual history of Israel. Front Matter 1 Front Cover 1 Half Title Page 2 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Dedication Page 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 LIST OF TABLES 10 PROLOGUE 12 Contents 14 Introduction: Content in Context 14 Paradigm, Crisis, Revolution The Trajectory of Israeli Sociology 20 The Nation-Building School Functionalism 36 The Vicissitudes of a Paradigm Functionalism Revised and Revisited 60 "The Shadowy Side of Politics" Elitism 82 Beyond the Melting Pot Pluralism 110 "Developed to Be Underdeveloped" Marxism 132 "Telling the Untold Tale" Feminism 162 "A Late Instance of European Overseas Expansion" Colonization 184 Conclusion Sociology in Society 210 Back Matter 218 EPILOGUE: Towards a Post-Zionist Sociology 218 BIBLIOGRAPHY 222 INDEX 242 Back Cover 247 Published by State Univcrsitv of :-.Jew York Press,Alhan,'