This book focuses on the kibbutz movement in Israel, and examines communal socialist industry and the consequences of its embeddedness within a national polity and the global market economy. As a consequence, the subject is firmly located within the debates about the internationalization of capitalism and parallel debates about the future of socialism within the global market economy. The text explores the management and organization of kibbutz industry as an essential feature of communal socialism.
How the kibbutz movement thrived despite its inherent economic contradictions and why it eventually declined The kibbutz is a social experiment in collective living that challenges traditional economic theory. By sharing all income and resources equally among its members, the kibbutz system created strong incentives to free ride or—as in the case of the most educated and skilled—to depart for the city. Yet for much of the twentieth century kibbutzim thrived, and kibbutz life was perceived as idyllic both by members and the outside world. In The Mystery of the Kibbutz, Ran Abramitzky blends economic perspectives with personal insights to examine how kibbutzim successfully maintained equal sharing for so long despite their inherent incentive problems. Weaving the story of his own family’s experiences as kibbutz members with extensive economic and historical data, Abramitzky sheds light on the idealism and historic circumstances that helped kibbutzim overcome their economic contradictions. He illuminates how the design of kibbutzim met the challenges of thriving as enclaves in a capitalist world and evaluates kibbutzim’s success at sustaining economic equality. By drawing on extensive historical data and the stories of his pioneering grandmother who founded a kibbutz, his uncle who remained in a kibbutz his entire adult life, and his mother who was raised in and left the kibbutz, Abramitzky brings to life the rise and fall of the kibbutz movement. The lessons that The Mystery of the Kibbutz draws from this unique social experiment extend far beyond the kibbutz gates, serving as a guide to societies that strive to foster economic and social equality.
Focusing on the human story, journalist Daniel Gavron movingly portrays the fears, regrets and hopes of members of kibbutzim ranging from traditional to modern and agricultural to urban.
The years 1909-2009 mark a century of kibbutz life—one hundred years of achievements, failures, and challenges. It is undeniable that the impact of kibbutzim on Israeli society has been substantial. During its one hundred years of existence, the kibbutz as a concept and as a reality underwent many changes, as did Israel as a whole both before its establishment in 1948 and since then. One Hundred Years of Kibbutz Life describes a host of changes that have occurred and describes their meaning. The kibbutz population has increased in terms of demography and capital, a point that frequently is overlooked in the debate about the institution’s viability. The kibbutz has become a very attractive place for young people who want community life. Like the founders who tried to establish a particular society grounded in certain principles, so too, newcomers to the kibbutz want to establish a new idealistic society with specific social and economic arrangements. The combined voices of the contributors to this volume discuss the ideals, hopes, frustrations, disappointments, and reconstruction efforts that brought a few solutions to the fading kibbutz ideals. These solutions are not always popular among kibbutz members, but they demonstrate growth and development of the kibbutz. Through the inclusion of a variety of studies, this book clarifies the role of this dynamic institution.
We think of the kibbutz as a place for communal living and working. Members work, reside, and eat together, and share income “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” But in the late 1980s the kibbutzim decided that they needed to change. Reforms—moderate at first—were put in place. Members could work outside of the organization, but wages went to the collective. Apartments could be expanded, but housing remained kibbutz-owned. In 1995, change accelerated. Kibbutzim began to pay salaries based on the market value of a member’s work. As a result of such changes, the “renewed” kibbutz emerged. By 2010, 75 percent of Israel’s 248 non-religious kibbutzim fit into this new category. This book explores the waves of reforms since 1990. Looking through the lens of organizational theories that predict how open or closed a group will be to change, the authors find that less successful kibbutzim were most receptive to reform, and reforms then spread through imitation from the economically weaker kibbutzim to the strong.
The focus of this book is the process of unionization in the road haulage industry, in particular, the role of leadership in determining the quality of union organization. It analyzes the early history of road haulage unions, the creation of the TGWU, the failure to organize the industry during the 1930s and the consequent reliance upon statutory regulation of wages and conditions, and the subsequent institutional stasis of the TGWU during the 1950s. The transformation and expansion of union organization during the period of 1963-1973, conceived as the mobilization of collective power by workers within the employment relationship, is explored in case studies of TGWU branches in Birmingham, Liverpool and London, and within the wider context of TGWU. The retrenchment of union organization as a result of recession and Conservative government legislation, 1980-1994, is explored. The book concludes with an assessment of theories of unionization and democracy, and the role of leadership, with reference to the historical development of British trade unionism. The research utilizes oral and documentary sources, including hitherto unused archives of the TGWU and the Road Haulage Association.
Since the State of Israel was established, its labor force has grown rapidly and has become increasingly diverse in terms of its demographic, cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic characteristics. Israeli work values have shifted towards greater individualism, materialism, careerism, and preference for white-collar and knowledge-based occupations is evident. A major structural change is underway, as indicated by the decline of agriculture as a component in the Israeli economy and the growth of the industrial sector--mostly towards high technology and innovative enterprises.This volume sheds light on trends and developments that have been taking place in the realm of work in Israel in recent years. It contains a unique selection of articles presenting empirical evidence of the major features and important changes characterizing work organizations and the regime of work in Israeli society: labor relations, work values, power and management in organizations, work in the Kibbutz, inter-organizational relations, women and work, migrants and minorities in the Israeli labor force. Studies show that another two major trends characterize the contemporary economy and the labor market: the trend toward privatization and globalization, the results of which are a continuous decrease of job security and an increasing level of unemployed Israeli men and women that are replaced by the low-cost labor of foreign workers emigrating from third world countries.This timely volume is valuable for its contribution to illuminating the recent changes taking place in the realm of work in Israel, and will be of interest to sociologists, social scientists, and students of Judaica.
Innovative and offering a sociological analysis of trade unionism in the globalized era, this book provides a robust and coherent comparative analysis of the debate surrounding trade unions and their renewal.
Unfree labor has not disappeared from advanced capitalist economies. In this sense the debates among and between Marxist and orthodox economic historians about the incompatibility of capitalism and unfree labor are moot: the International Labour Organisation has identified forced, coerced, and unfree labor as a contemporary issue of global concern. Previously hidden forms of unfree labor have emerged in parallel with several other well-documented trends affecting labor conditions, rights, and modes of regulation. These evolving types of unfree labor include the increasing normalization of contingent work (and, by extension, the undermining of the standard contract of employment), and an increase in labor intermediation. The normative, political, and numerical rise of temporary employment agencies in many countries in the last three decades is indicative of these trends. It is in the context of this rapidly changing landscape that this book consolidates and expands on research designed to understand new institutions for work in the global era. This edited collection provides a theoretical and empirical exploration of the links between unfree labor, intermediation, and modes of regulation, with particular focus on the evolving institutional forms and political-economic contexts that have been implicated in, and shaped by, the ascendency of temp agencies. What is distinctive about this collection is this bi-focal lens: it makes a substantial theoretical contribution by linking disparate literatures on, and debates about, the co-evolution of contingent work and unfree labor, new forms of labor intermediation, and different regulatory approaches; but it further lays the foundation for this theory in a series of empirically rich and geographically diverse case studies. This integrative approach is grounded in a cross-national comparative framework, using this approach as the basis for assessing how, and to what extent, temporary agency work can be considered unfree wage labor
Transnational trade union action has expanded significantly over the last few decades and has taken a variety of shapes and trajectories. This book is concerned with understanding the spatial extension of trade union action, and in particular the development of new forms of collective mobilization, network-building, and forms of regulation that bridge local and transnational issues. Through the work of leading international specialists, this collection of essays examines the process and dynamic of transnational trade union action and provides analytical and conceptual tools to understand these developments. The research presented here emphasizes that the direction of transnational solidarity remains contested, subject to experimentation and negotiation, and includes studies of often overlooked developments in transition and developing countries with original analyses from the European Union and NAFTA areas. Providing a fresh examination of transnational solidarity, this volume offers neither a romantic or overly optimistic narrative of a borderless unionism, nor does it fall into a fatalistic or pessimistic account of international union solidarity. Through original research conducted at different levels, this book disentangles the processes and dynamics of institution building and challenges the conventional national based forms of unionism that prevailed in the latter half of the twentieth century.
