Call for Papers: Israel Studies Journal Special Issue on the History of Social Policy, 1948-1985
Call for Papers: Research Workshop and Special Journal Issue
The Politics of Welfare & Poverty: Turning Points in the History of Social Policy in Israel, 1948-1985
Call for Papers: Research Workshop and Special Journal Issue
The Politics of Welfare and Poverty: Turning Points in the History of Social Policy in Israel, 1948-1985
The Nation Building Laboratory at the Azrieli Center for Israel Studies, Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, is initiating a research workshop and special journal issue on turning points in Israeli welfare policy from 1948 until the adoption of the Economic Stabilization Program in 1985. The workshop will bring together scholars with diverse perspectives on the history of welfare policy in Israel. It aims to encourage research that will be published in articles in the peer-reviewed journal Israel Studies.
The decades following 1945 saw a dramatic spread in welfare policy throughout the capitalist world. These years witnessed both rapid economic growth and the consolidation of the idea that the state is responsible for its citizens’ welfare. Many countries transitioned from ‘night-watchman’ states to ones that actively intervene in their economy and society, and expanding their social welfare. Welfare policy was characterized by three core principles: ensuring social rights based on citizenship; decommodification of social services, by removing them for the sphere of the market; and state intervention in family and community spaces. During the decades in which this policy peaked, from the 1950s to the 1970s, there existed a stable world order based on Keynesian principles for regulating the international monetary system, mechanisms for reducing social inequality (wages, welfare, taxation, education, housing, health) and full employment. In Israel, nation-building processes and the creation of a state infrastructure were intertwined with the construction of welfare policy.
The welfare policies formulated between 1948 and 1985 continue to reverberate powerfully in contemporary Israeli debates. Through diverse perspectives, this workshop will examine the historical turning points that shaped welfare policies and their persistent impact on social inequality and welfare procedures.
The workshop and special journal issue will center on three main axes of debate:
The first axis will address the question, whether the inequality that developed in Israel was a result of unique conditions in Israeli society, or whether it stemmed from the top-down construction of ethnic and class power- relations. One argument holds that class stratification was mainly a result of difficult objective social conditions – resource scarcity and mass immigration – despite attempts to implement policies aimed at reducing inequality. A second argument suggests that stratification originated primarily from the unequal distribution of resources in the State’s early decades by the government, which preferred some and discriminated against other groups based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, politics, spatial distribution, organizational membership, and economics.
The second axis addresses the question, what were the primary drivers of social policy and stratification: the state, the market, or civil society? Were state institutions the primary actors in determining social policy, or did the market allocate resources and shape inequality? A third approach suggests that civil society, which the State of Israel inherited from the pre-state Yishuv and which continued to develop after the establishment of the State, was a paramount factor in shaping social policy in Israel.
The third axis examines whether state welfare mechanisms functioned as effective tools for social security and equality, or whether they inherently created conditions where people became permanently reliant on state support, unable to escape poverty, and reinforced divisions
Research Project Format:
The project will be generated by a small research workshop, to be held at the Ben-Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, at Ben-Gurion University campus in Sde Boker on September 9-10, 2025. It intends to lay the foundation for a special issue in the peer-reviewed academic journal Israel Studies, that will address historical aspects of welfare-policy construction in Israel. The research workshop will be conducted in Hebrew, but the special issue will be published in English. All articles will be peer-reviewed according to accepted academic standards.
Submission Guidelines:
- Researchers interested in participating in the project are requested to submit an abstract of 400-500 words, accompanied by a short biography (up to 200 words).
- The deadline for submission is April 21, 2025.
- Submissions should be sent to bgarfinke@staff.haifa.ac.il.
- Responses will be sent to applicants by the end of May 2025.
- A 2,000-word draft for the workshop presentation should be submitted by August 1, 2025.
- The deadline for article submissions for the special issue will be announced later.
- Research proposals may be submitted in Hebrew or English.