Uri Ram

Zionist national identity in Israel is today challenged by two mutuallyantagonistic alternatives: a liberal, secular, Post-Zionist civic identity, on the one hand, and ethnic, religious, Neo-Zionist nationalistic identity, on the other. The other, Zionist, hegemony contains an unsolvable tension between the national and the democratic facets of the state. The Post-Zionist trend seeks a relief of this tension by bracketing the nationalcharacter of the state, i.e., by separation of state and cultural community/ies; the Neo-Zionist trend seeks a relief of the same tension by bracketing the democratic nature of the state, i.e., by consolidating the Jewish ethno-national character of the state. The focus of the study is upon two dimensions of this unfolding cultural-political strife: the conflicting perceptions of time and space, and the ways they affect the perceptions of the boundaries of the collectivity, either in an inclusionary manner (the ``post'') or in an exclusionary manner (the ``neo'')

This book presents a comprehensive historical account of sociology in Israel the first history of sociology in Israel, from its beginnings in late 19th-century to the early 21st-century. It locates the ruptures and reorientations of the sociological text within its shifting historical context. Israeli sociology is shown to have evolved in tandem with the development of the Israeli-Jewish nation in Palestine, and later of the state of Israel. Offering a critical overview of the origins and the development of the discipline, it argues that this can be divided into the following phases: Predecessors, Founders, Disciples, Critics and More Critics, Intermediators, Post-Modernists and Post-Colonialists. This book contributes a fascinating national case study to the history of sociology and will appeal further to students and scholars of social theory and Israel Studies.

AroundIntermediators (school of sociology) the mid-1990s two opposing processes took place simultaneously: on the one hand, explicit controversies flared up between mainstream sociologistsMainstream sociology and new critical sociologistsCritics (critical; school of sociology); on the other hand, a more tacit process of rapprochement took place between the two sides. An intermediaryIntermediators (school of sociology) position evolved and became a new sociological convention, that viewed Israel as a society afflicted by conflicts among “cleavagesCleavages (social),” or sectors. In 2015 Reuven RivlinRivlin, Reuven the president of the state, publicly adopted this line of thought and proclaimed the end of the “old social order,” based on a solid majority, and the beginning of a “new social order,” based on a concord between equally weighted minorities.

DuringFeminism (Feminist school of sociology)Liberal the 1970s conflict, sociology developed three further strands: pluralist sociologyPluralism (Pluralist school of sociology), which underlined the multiethnic composition of society; feminist sociologyFeminism (Feminist school of sociology), which highlighted the specificity of women’s status in society; and colonizationColonization (school of sociology) sociology, which considered the encounter between immigrant Jews and settled Palestinian ArabsPalestinian Arabs as the pivot of Israel’s social structure and dynamics.

This book is about Israeli sociologyPredecessors (Precursors; of Israeli sociology) since its beginnings, from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Israeli sociology evolved in tandem with the development of the Israeli-Jewish nation in PalestinePalestine, and later, of the state of Israel, and in compliance with this collectivity. The changing nature of relations between the nation-state and the discipline of sociology throughout this era is a major pivot of our narration. The narration is organized in the following historical phases: Predecessors (1882–1948), Founders (1948–1967), Disciples (1967–1996), Critics (1977–1987/1993), Intermediators (who analyze social cleavages) (1987–2018), and Postmodernists and Postcolonialists (1993–2018). The introductory chapter outlines briefly the development of the Israeli sociological text within the shifting context of Israeli history.

In time there emerged certain modalities ofModernizationTheory modernization theory, including revisedFunctionalism (Functionalist school of sociology)Revised functionalism, which, in the 1960s and 1970s, complemented the macrolevel approach with microlevels and mezzolevels of analysis. Another modality, revisited functionalism, hasFunctionalism (Functionalist school of sociology)Revisited coped, since the late 1970s, with the fall of the house of LaborLabor Movement, and with the parallel fall of functionalist theory. The “late Eisenstadt” progressively distanced himself from his early ParsonianParsons, Talcott (Parsonian sociology) functionalism and elaborated a WeberWeber, Max (Weberian sociology)ian cultural-civilizationCivilization (Civilizational)al orientation.

The first Department of Sociology was formed, in Jerusalem, in 1948. It was first chaired by Martin BuberBuber, Martin, who ushered in his Jewish German romantic nationalist world view. In 1950 his heir was Shmuel Noah EisenstadtEisenstadt, Shmuel Noah, who ushered in the American modernization paradigmParadigm (scientific). Eisenstadt is crowned as the founding father of Israeli sociologyFounders (of Israeli sociology), which, between the 1950s and 1970s, was mostly concerned with the question of the integration of new immigrantsImmigration (immigrants) in the national mold.

Proto-sociology-sociological studies, which related to the nascent Jewish Israeli society, were produced since the late nineteenth century. Three genres of early social science were practiced by in the period 1882–1948: social analysis IntellectualsOrganic organic intellectuals, or ideologues, of the Jewish-Zionist political movements; research IntellectualsExpertsucted Colonization (school of sociology), as assigned by institutional agencies; and the academic conceptual and historical work of migrant Jewish scholars affiliated with HUJI (founded in 1925).

PostmodernismPostmodern (-ism) (school of sociology) reached Israel in the late 1980s and the 1990s, enticing young cohort of scholars, while irritating older ones. It was embraced by radical intellectualsIntellectuals in tandem with the diffusion in Israel of late-capitalistCapitalism culture in the wake of the neoliberal turn of the 1980s. It was, as is the case elsewhere, in part, an effect of neoliberalismNeo-liberalism and in part, a reaction to it. The impact of postmodernism was first felt in the artistic and aesthetic spheres and later spilled over to the humanities and, finally, to the social sciences. Three sociological approaches are discussed in this context: cultural studies;Cultural StudiesBourdieusian sociologyBourdieusian (sociology); and new MarxistMarx, Karl (Marxist sociology) sociology.

Some aspects of contemporary Israeli sociology look troubling for its future prospects. Sociology today is entrapped between two sources of pressure: neonationalism and Neo-liberalism. On the one hand, sociology is pressed to conform to the Nationalism (Nationalist; Nationalistic) ethos; on the other hand, it is pushed to adapt to neoliberal practices. Yet a third type of problem seems to be a thorough Americanization (of sociology) of Israeli sociology in the global era. Though all these concerns are common to the humanities and social sciences in general, Israeli sociology seems to be particularly challenged.

In the late 1970s the atmosphere in the discipline of sociology started to change. “Consensus sociology” enticed a lot of criticism, and various strands of “conflict sociology”Conflict sociology evolved and challenged it. From the critical point of view, mainstream sociologyMainstream sociology was blind to the role of power, domination, and struggle in society, and to the divergence of interests and identities that had riven it. Political elitesElites (school of sociology) and ethnoClass (social)Ethnoclasses were the first approachs to contest modernization theory.