Articles

Four connected sources of social inequality are produced by rent creation mechanisms: inter-organizational social capital, political social capital, labor market inequality, and gender inequality. The theoretical framework of the sociology of rent integrates four structural theories, each referring to a distinct social arena: (1) network models of social capital, mainly related to asymmetric exchange in production markets, (2) resource mobilization theory, concerned with organized political conflicts and social movements, (3) the dual economy approach, denoting the segmented technological character of the economy and its effect on structural labor inequality, (4) patricharchy, underscoring male domination in the family and in the public sphere, including the labor market. Data were taken from the Israeli Input-Output tables, Israeli Micro Census, and the Industry and Craft Survey. Relational patterns were analyzed using network models of social structure, while the multi-level models were estimated by Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM). Industry's social capital (mainly contact efficiency and network asymmetry) was found to increase industry's capacity for exploitative rent appropriation, also raising male wages. Political ties also significantly increased male wages, and a male's wage generally increased to the extent that the industry in which he worked was central, geographically and technologically. Women did not benefit from industry’s social capital so the rent production mechanism systematically benefited men and not women. While absorbing exploitative rent from trade partners, employers and male employees proved inter-dependent. The discussion covers the theoretical implications of the findings for the sociology of rent, also as a general anchor in economic sociology bridging theories of social capital and stratification research.

A socio-emotional process, termed Oppressive Othering by American researchers, exists in the margins of non-standard employment in the Israeli public sector. Here it is traced and analyzed as expressed in HR managers' accounts collected in 2001. Othering emerged as an effort by managers to widen the social distance between themselves and non-standard employees, particularly those working for subcontractors. The interactive components that significantly contributed to a sense of commitment to some of people thus employed, as well those contributing to dehumanization, are indicated. This process is discussed as reflecting how far non-standard employment invites the crossing of ethical boundaries, making the employment relationship a mode of interaction that converges with other forms of social oppression.

Studies on transnational social movements in world risk society tend to emphasize their centrality and effectiveness as the result of two major transformations: the decline of the nation-state as a primary locus of power and sovereignty, and the rise of assertive civil societies’ subpolitics. The “Vanunu affair” (the Israeli technician who was sentenced to 18 years in prison for making public Israel’s nuclear secrets) and the reactions to it on local and global levels serve for an analysis of the obstacles to the effective influence of anti-nuclear transnational social movements and their difficulties in contributing to global framing. These obstacles arise mainly from the cultural politics of a “secret state”, which constructs national sovereignty and mobilizes the local civil society by means of nuclear secrecy and opacity. Recognizing that “foreign intervention” cannot be reduced to inter-state actors alone, the article contributes to the growing literature on transnational relations that emphasizes the significance of norms, identities, and culture in world politics. It helps explain “why states are still with us,” and illumines the difficulties in realizing the ideal of a nuclear free global civil society,

 Teen magazines' advice columns construct a dialogue between adults and teens about young people’s “authentic” experiences of identity formation. This article studies the columns' discourse of homosexuality. The research data were drawn from all the issues of Maariv Lanoaar and Rosh 1 magazines published from 1986 to 2000. Analyzed within the qualitative tradition, the texts were taken as a discourse, i.e., as practices that constitute a body of knowledge and a means of imparting meaning to reality through words or images. Insight is thereby gained into the ways social texts work, in a Foucauldian sense, as sites of power that encourage self subordination; into the connection between power/knowledge and normality or deviance; and into the ways these notions are constructed socially and mediated through popular texts. Denial of homosexuality is the primary motif that underlies/informs the advice columns. It is produced through implicit means that suggest (indeed, insist) that there is no such thing as normal homosexuality, particularly not among teenagers. The narratives that explain homosexual experience render it remediable and mark the path to absolution and/or atonement.

The assumption that family relations and innovativeness are incompatible is contested. In middle-class Jewish families in Poland-Lithuania in the 19th century large family units, including extended households and broad family networks, were an essential condition for the emotional and intellectual development of young people who later were mobilized into various social movements. The usefulness of the post modern approach to the family is indicated. Fluid relationships of love and authority between adults and children did not damage the personal integrity of the latter but contributed to the development of independent, ambitious, and sociable young adults, hence to the rise of social movements in Jewish society and its modernization.

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