The Center for Rural Studies

Dr. Zeevik Greenberg – Head of Center 
Mail: [email protected]

Prof. Eli Gimmon – Researcher 
Mail: [email protected]

Dr. Orit Degani Dinisman – Researcher
Mail: [email protected]

Dr. Yahel Kurlander – Researcher
Mail: [email protected]

Prof. Hassan Azaizeh – Researcher
Mail: [email protected]

Dr. Yanay Farja – Researcher
Mail: [email protected]

Dr. Ayala Cohen – Researcher
Mail: [email protected]

Dr. David Burg – Researcher
Mail: [email protected] 

Dr. Anat Kidron

Mail: [email protected] 

Dr. Orly Ganany - Research fellow

Mail: [email protected]

Inter-municipal cooperation is part of the policies leading to implementation of a regional orientation in local government around the world and in Israel, and aims to actualize concepts of integrated, multi-layered regional governance. Over the past decade, 12 regional clusters have been established in Israel, constituting a platform for cooperation among municipal authorities, as an alternative to combining authorities. The regional clusters seek to promote pooling of resources and joint strategic processes based on voluntary participation by the authorities. In Israel, there are two major challenges to operating these clusters: significant economic gaps, resulting from the history and politics of geographic-municipal border determination; and ethnic and cultural differences between neighboring authorities. In order to promote meaningful cooperation, to improve the quality of life for residents and to reduce internal-regional gaps, these challenges must be overcome.

This project examines the level of cooperation in decision making, in resource allocation and in consumption of services among cooperating authorities. The research goal is to examine the perspectives of players in cooperating authorities, the ability to influence, the sense of cooperation, and the advantages and disadvantages of providing regional services through the clusters. All these are examined with reference to the characteristics of the cooperating authorities. The research will include clusters in the center of the country and the periphery, including Jewish and Arab local authorities. 

תמונה

Research team

Dr. Tamar Arieli 

Mail: [email protected]

Dr. Noam Cohen 

Mail: [email protected] 

Dr. Orit Degani Dinisman 

Mail: [email protected]

ד"ר אורית דיניסמן

[email protected]

The research and literature about the LGBT community emphasize an urban way of life characterized by anonymity and personal freedom that allow LGBT individuals to live their lives as they wish, emphasizing the personal freedom possible in cities.

Changes in the rural space, including migration of families to rural settlements, and the openness to welcoming new populations in these settlements, have promoted movement of LGBT population to rural settlements. Gay men, lesbians, transgender and queer individuals with a range of other identities are seeking to live in rural settlements and small communities, to be close to nature and to experience a sense of belonging to a small and intimate community. This research project began in 2022 and examines this population’s sense of belonging to the rural community they live in, and the characteristics of their lives in rural settlements.

Research leader:

Prof. Zeevik Greenberg Head of Center

Mail: [email protected]

One of the results of the economic crisis in rural settlements was a reduction in occupation with agriculture and a transition to a diversified economy in terms of employment and income. Thus, the rural economy includes a variety of occupations and industries that together contribute to household income. In many villages, in addition to the traditional occupation with agriculture, business enterprises have been established with the goal of ensuring income for all households. This project is a continuation of research that examined the characteristics of small businesses in rural settlements. We examine the characteristics of business enterprises and small businesses operating in rural settlements in different aspects of growth potential, gender and employment, and also examine the relationships between small businesses and the places where they are located. We examine the characteristics of economic and other relationships between businesses and the communities in which they are located in the rural space.

This project includes several studies which complement one another. The findings to date have been published in three articles in academic journals and have been presented at several international conferences. 

תמונה

Research team:

Prof. Prof. Eli Gimmon – Researcher

Mail: [email protected]

Dr. Orly Ganany

Mail: [email protected]

Prof. Zeevik Greenberg Head of Center

Mail: [email protected]

It is customary to use the concept of “community” in describing the Zionist settlement enterprise in Israel, since local communities were the cornerstones of the national sovereign entity. The rural communities, which were built as homogeneous Hebrew communities, also developed their identities and their links to the national space with reference to the settlement ideal they represented. The establishment of the state led to changes in the models of rural settlement, and new models of rural communities developed. Some of these communities were established as expansions of existing settlements and led to far-reaching changes in the structure of the local community, in its activities and function, and in the identity definitions of community members in connection with local perspectives and the national space. Building new neighborhoods brought a large number of new residents to rural settlements in which there had been small and intimate communities. Many of these new residents had sought to live in small rural communities, yet lacked a communal orientation or lacked a connection to the ideology that had characterized these settlements in the past. In the theoretical field of community, two new concepts developed: “communalism,” meaning the way that members participate in the daily life of the community they belong to; and “community peace” or Evolutionary community resilience to express the strength of the community in daily life.

In this project, we seek to examine the definition of community and communalism, and the manner in which these new communities currently view themselves in relation to themselves and in relation to the national space. The research seeks to examine how leading office holders and community leaders view local communalism and the place of these communities in the national space. The research also seeks to examine the emergence of shared community consciousness and the components of its identity from an instrumental perspective, through the way the community is managed and the construction of local community consciousness. 

תמונה

Prof. Anat Kidron

Mail: [email protected]

Prof. Zeevik Greenberg Head of Center

Mail: [email protected]

The establishment of expansion neighborhoods and the addition of new population to kibbutzim has led to many challenges, among them the cultural assimilation of the new residents in the communities they have joined. The challenges of assimilation are examined at the personal-psychological level and also at the group-sociological level. The real contact and participation of the new residents in cultural events in the settlement have an impact on intergroup relations within the community. The adaptation of new residents is tested on the plane of familiarity, belonging and affinity, and it is shaped by encounters between new and longtime residents and joint activities between longtime residents and those entering the community. There are diverse strategies that can provide a response for communalism in order to enable optimal assimilation of populations: mass mobilization to bring about community change; social activities; civic participation; public education and development of local services.

This study deals with cultural activities taking place in kibbutzim, specifically, and asks how participation mechanisms of groups that join kibbutz culture work, addressing the characteristics of management of the renewed culture, organization of content and activities, and entrepreneurship versus participation in cultural activities as means of building a new community comprised of old and new residents.

תמונה

Prof. Igal Charney, University of Haifa

Mai: [email protected]

Prof. Zeevik Greenberg Head of Center

Mail: [email protected]

גב' אילת צביאלי

 [email protected]