Israeli Sociology: Text in Context

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 (1882-1948), Founders (1948-1977), Disciples (1967-1977), Critics and More Critics (1977-1987), Intermediators (1977-2018), Post-Modernists (1993-2018) and Post-Colonialists (1993-2018).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.

About the Author

Uri Ram is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He is the Department Chair and the President of the Israeli Sociological Society. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of the New School for Social Research in New York and is a frequent visiting professor at the NSSR and at New York University. His areas of interest include the sociology of knowledge, sociological theories, nationalism and globalization, and Israeli society. He is a major contributor to the renewal of critical sociology in Israel, to the analysis post- and neo-Zionist trends in Israeli political culture, and to the “glocal” perspective on Israel.