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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the NGOs in the immigration field as a counterculture working simultaneously with and against the establishment. Design/methodology/approach – Case study approach using interviews and documents analysis. Findings – This paper studies the cultural features of three civil associations, interested in promoting social welfare for immigrants. These NGOs challenge the Israeli government when it violates human rights. This conflict takes place in the courts, the Knesset (parliament), governmental agencies, the media, and sometimes in the streets. The three NGOs use a variety of political strategies: both collaborating with governmental agencies, while simultaneously fighting against the government authorities. The cultural features of the immigrant NGOs are primarily left-wing, with socialist principles. The organizational culture of this association can be identified as a counterculture, opposing the dominant Israeli right-wing capitalist culture. Practical implications – This research can demonstrate how NGOs can use tactics to achieve a high level of success for the underprivileged population. Originality/value – This case study is unusual in that it suggests the NGOs are a sophisticated counterculture, with activists knowing how to operate concurrently with and against official authorities. The duality of the political cultural behavior of the NGOs’ social movement is a notable phenomenon of counterculture in the political arena and expands the definition of counterculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberal governance has been associated with rising inequality and economic exclusion. Recent scholarship proposes that the social investment state (SIS) is a turn away from such inequality and exclusion-enhancing neoliberalism. The ideal SIS responds to neoliberalism-generated social ills by investing in the productive capacities of all its citizens. However, commentators ask whether an SIS addresses the plight of weaker elements in society, specifically that of disadvantaged ethnic minorities. This paper looks specifically at this question by utilising a critical-case study research design of a surprising example of social investment in disadvantaged ethnic minorities: the extensive labour market policies for Israeli Arabs. This paper introduces the concept of a neoliberal targeted SIS in which social investment programmes are developed for economic reasons, promoted by neoliberal actors (right-wing parties and Ministries of Finance), target narrow groups instead of being applied to all, and the preferred mode for the delivery of services is private. Egalitarian outcomes – to the extent that they materialise – might be thought of as a policy by-product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a position paper on Israel's benefits system. It was produced in the framework of a participatory action research with the collaboration of welfare services users and social welfare policy practitioners, academics, social practitioners, and social activists. Some 78 persons living in poverty, from various population groups, were asked, in group settings, to describe their experiences with the benefit system and services, their coping strategies, their perceptions and attitudes towards these services, and their recommendations for ways to improve them. The position paper which emerged from this process served as the basis for discussions between service users, social welfare policy practitioners, researchers, social activists and social practitioners at an academic conference. Issues such as benefits cuts, eligibility, and definitions of poverty are discussed and recommendations are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – According to convergence theory, over time societies form similar social structures, political processes and public policies. In 2001, Israel adopted a welfare reform plan that rejected the traditional strategy of passive income support and instead endorsed the concept of activation. The plan was modeled on the Wisconsin Welfare to Work program and was designed to put the long-term unemployed to work. The program began operating in four regions in 2004 but was abruptly terminated six years later. The purpose of this paper is to analyze why Israel’s welfare reform failed to follow the smooth path predicted by convergence theory and elucidates the factors in the Israeli environment that made the implementation of a program borrowed from the USA unsustainable. Design/methodology/approach – A multi-method approach including interviews with key informants, content analysis of media materials and government documents and a quantitative comparative values analysis of four nations. Findings – The failure of US-style welfare reform in Israel was due to four main factors: a more diverse recipient population, a lack of understanding of Israeli cultural values, a welfare population that included a substantial number of ethnic minorities whose customs conflicted with program regulations and a social movement against the program by non-profit organizations. Originality/value – This paper demonstrates the limitations of convergence theory and highlights the salience of cultural values in the transmission of activation policies across nations. Specifically, it shows that outcomes vary when policies that are superficially similar are implanted in nations with fundamentally different cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factors that inhibit and promote professional interventions with young adults refer to social, formal-structural, and personal factors. Nevertheless, studies of these factors from social workers' perspective, and research of the inhibitors associated with the socio-cultural context of minority young adults, are few. The aim of the present study was to examine social workers' perceptions of the factors that inhibit and promote interventions in the socio-cultural and formal-structural context of at-risk young Arab-Palestinian women in Israel, who are at an intersection of marginal positions. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 social workers. The findings revealed two themes: 1) Social workers' perceptions of the challenges in two dimensions, a) socio-cultural factors which include family centrality in the young women's life, and b) formal-structural inhibitors. 2) Promoting factors which include professional values and the need for cooperation between organizations themselves and with recipients of the services The findings were reviewed according to the intersectional invisibility model, and were based on the concept of institutional discrimination, which showed that at-risk young Arab women experience an intersectional invisibility of their identities and, at the same time, the social workers experience a conflicting situation within the wider context of intersectional discrimination. The paper concludes with recommendations to practitioners and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The translation perspective explores the travel of policy ideas, programmes and practices across international boundaries, focusing on the process through which interpretative agents introduce and adjust borrowed policy items to a new policy context. Current research emphasises the significance of local networks' support for translation's efficacy. However, we know little about how such networks are maintained and stabilized over time or how changing configurations and capacities may affect translation's prospects. This paper explores the case of Israel's attempted institutionalisation of workfare – an enduring international policy fashion – from 1998 to the present day. We follow the stabilization and destabilization of the local translation network across different levels and sites of policy design and implementation, analysing emerging conflicts and agreements at each site. We use the metaphor 'episodes of translation' to explore translation's value as a concept accounting for local policy change. In order for translation-led policy change to maintain legitimacy and actualisation in contested domains, ongoing engagement of existing and emerging policy actors is essential. This case demonstrates how when networks become destabilized, translation-led policy change may come to a halt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a qualitative empirical examination of the noncompliance of Israeli female welfare recipients with welfare laws and authorities. The paper demonstrates that their behavior, defined as 'welfare fraud' by the law, is a limited form of collective resistance to the Israeli welfare state. Although the acts of welfare fraud that the women in my study engaged in entail a political claim against the state, the relationship between these acts and notions of collectivity is very constricted in form. The women's collectivity is shown to be constrained by the welfare authorities' invasive and pervasive investigation practices and methods. Due to fear of disclosure to the authorities, the women emerged as deliberately isolating themselves from their immediate environment and potential members of their like-situated collective. This weakens the connection between the women's acts of resistance and their collectivity, and prevents their acts of resistance from driving social change, trapping them in their harsh conditions and existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major argument of this paper is that to enhance the theoretical value of the concept of governance one must focus on how governance networks operate and with what outcomes. To that end, the paper offers a typology of governance-network capacity (GNC). Network capacity is assessed on a continuum from low to high, on the basis of four abilities of public actors: to select non-public collaborators, determine the goals of the network, exercise professional discretion, and recruit new resources. Differences in GNC are discussed in terms of their implications for equality and the degree to which new forms of governing networks create bases for retaining or increasing the inequality between municipalities. The paper presents findings from a study of collaborations between public and non-public actors in 78 governance networks that provide welfare services, operating in six municipalities in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper raises questions regarding the desirable sizes of retail facilities within an existing urban system. We address questions of efficiency by reference to a social welfare function and by reference to profit maximization by developers. To this end we utilize a gravity-type simulation model and apply it in the case of Haifa, Israel based on a unique data base. Based on simulations of a single developer who owns all the retail facilities the optimal locations yield large retail facilities away from residential areas and smaller ones in the locations closer to the buying power. In the case that each facility is owned separately, stepwise optimization yields optimal order of development, first at locations in close proximity to the buying power. In the early stages of the development of a retail system the revenues are expected to be high and the sizes of retailers moderate. The total amount of retail space supplied by the modern retailers in reality is significantly higher than the amount suggested by the optimization tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing interest in fundraising as part of the social worker's role, there has been no comprehensive research on this subject. The purpose of the present research is to begin to bridge that gap. Five dimensions of fundraising are defined and a theoretical framework, comprised of factors that may be related to social workers' involvement in this activity, is developed. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire, administered to social workers in welfare departments in Israel. Statistical analysis of the findings indicates low to moderate mean levels of social worker involvement in fundraising. The variable that contributes most to involvement in fundraising is the social worker's sense of efficacy for this activity. The paper offers several theoretical and practical conclusions and suggests directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes and analyses selected issues related to the provision of home care services to frail elderly people following the Israeli Long-Term Care Insurance Law (1988). The goals and principles of the Law, which mandates the provision of home care services to frail elderly people, are presented. The paper also evaluates its contribution toward enhancing the well-being of elderly clients. Several major dilemmas that arose following implementation of the Law are analysed and evaluated in comparison with other countries that have enacted and implemented similar laws. These dilemmas are community vs institutional care; services in kind vs monetary allowances; service provision through contracting out with nongovernmental agencies; unstable and unskilled labour force; and service quality. Finally, policy implications are discussed, mainly in the following areas: investment in human resources as a condition for achieving high service quality, and the need for coordination between the agencies that provide long-term care services to elderly people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mayors play a major role in determining their locality's welfare policies and significantly influence the welfare bureaus' work. This study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 mayors of local Arab governments in Israel to examine this issue. It found that the mayors fiercely criticize the welfare bureaus in four areas of concern, claiming that they ignore particular needs, neglect core target populations, lack culture-sensitive responses and their functioning is defective. The mayors' criticism of welfare bureau inadequacies sheds light on Welfare Ministry policies that allocate lower discriminatory budgets to Arab welfare bureaus and are insensitive to Arab society's cultural-religious needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the cultural features of one organization promoting workers' social welfare. The Worker's Hotline challenges human rights violations by exploitive employers and the Israeli government. The Worker's Hotline uses a variety of political strategies: collaborating with governmental agencies and fighting against the authorities, even while being funded by them. The main research question is: What is the Hotline's defining cultural features? Can it be considered counterculture or subculture of values? The authors utilized qualitative research methods. They conducted 25 interviews; gathered documents from websites and then analyzed these interviews and documents. The findings indicated the Worker's Hotline cultural features were primarily left-wing with socialist principles. This association's organizational culture can be identified as a subculture, opposing dominant Israeli right-wing capitalist culture in legal spectrum. This case study's uniqueness is its suggestion that the Hotline is a sophisticated subculture, whose activists simultaneously operate with and against the authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to gain further insights into how visiting international social work students and their hosts from different cultures learn about each others’ social services, culture, and personal values. Six Israeli students and 8 Indian students have written narratives and reflections on their experiences in the international encounter during the fieldwork exchange program. Content analysis of the students’ papers revealed a learning process that students go through, through which paternalistic attitudes move in the direction of cultural sensitivity that leads to cultural relativism, and then moves back again. Through this process, the students acquire the knowledge and skills they need for implementing international social work in line with social work values and declaration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper examines the contributions to burnout of three day-to-day job stressors—abuse by service users, thwarted implementation of professional decisions and job-related dilemmas—which had been identified as especially upsetting by social workers in a previous study. The study participants were 363 social workers employed in direct service provision in municipal welfare departments in Israel. Since some were employed in the Tel Aviv–Yafo municipality and others in municipalities elsewhere in Israel, place of employment was included in the analyses. The findings show that abuse by service users and place of employment contributed to all three of Maslach's dimensions of burnout, while neither thwarted implementation of professional decisions nor job-related dilemmas contributed significantly to any of them. The contribution of client abuse challenges previous findings suggesting that service user factors play little role in burnout. The finding that the Tel Aviv–Yafo social workers had less burnout than the others requires further examination to determine why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a regional-level planning model aimed at allocating treated sewage sludge among potential users. The model incorporates, in one endogenous system, the economic, biological and environmental relationships and its objective is to maximize the regional social welfare. A few allocation approaches from the concept of transferable utility games are applied to determine a reasonable and fair allocation of the additional net benefits resulting from regional co-operation which is acceptable to all relevant economic units (players). The analysis is applied to a region in Israel and the results support regional collaboration among the relevant players which increase economic benefits by 19% and enable avoidance of sea pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores the evolution of rehabilitative, rights and economic discourses, and their effect on the development of juvenile justice policies in Israel during the last two decades. Israel has adopted the main features of a neo-liberal regime and severe cuts were made to major social welfare programmes, including those dealing with juvenile offenders. However, the neo-liberal ideas of individualisation and responsibilisation did not penetrate the area of juvenile delinquency. A renewed welfarist discourse in Israel was created instead. This strongly relied on traditional beliefs in rehabilitation and treatment based on a child-centred culture, incorporating concepts of rights and embedded in practical economic considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Numerous recent studies reveal the contribution of leadership and leadership style, in particular, to effectiveness in different organizations (Sosik et al., 1998; Ogbnna and Harris, 2000; Hoyt and Blascovich, 2003; Hullinger, 2003; Berson and Avolio, 2004), including the field of welfare organizations (Gummer, 1995; Arches, 1997; Fisher, 2005; Mary, 2005). These publications suggest a preference for the transformational, compared with the transactional, leadership style. However, the studies reviewed do not examine the contribution of organizational leadership compared with other aspects of organizational life. Using the previous studies as its point of departure, the present research examines the contribution of the leadership styles of the directors in welfare departments to the effectiveness of the social workers in these organizations. However, it also undertakes another task, by comparing the contribution of leadership style to effectiveness with that of staff cohesion and social worker empowerment. Thus, the findings and discussion presented in this paper compare the respective contributions of three central levels of the organization to effectiveness—the administrative level (director's leadership styles), the staff level (staff cohesion), and the individual level of the social worker (worker empowerment). The research examines this issue in a public welfare department in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines one of the problems that faces decision makers in their efforts to move benefit recipients from welfare to work. On the basis of Israeli evidence, the thorny issues of poverty traps and disincentives to work are examined. The findings indicate that very significant poverty traps exist in the basic income maintenance programme in the Israeli social security system. However, unlike the case in many other welfare states, these poverty traps are not a result of the interaction between the benefit and taxation systems but rather are a result of anomalies within the Income Support programme itself. Specifically, the existence of an income ceiling, that is taken into account when calculating the benefit provided to Income Support recipients in work, virtually cancels out arty disregards that exist in the programme. This income ceiling is a consequence of the determination of Treasury officials, who took part in the policy-formulating process, to prevent the many low-wage earners in the Israel workforce from being eligible to receive benefits. The poverty traps that are a result of the income ceiling effectively undermine any effort to encourage the movement from welfare to work among Income Support recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of finance capital in regional economic development. A cost-benefit approach is invoked in order to estimate the welfare impacts of a regional loan and guarantee program for small firms in Israel. Program-created employment is treated as a benefit and an employment account that separates net from gross employment, is presented. An estimate of net wage benefits is then derived. This involves adjusting wages across different earnings classes in order to account for the variation in opportunity costs of labor at different levels. The estimation of costs includes the opportunity costs of capital, administration, default, and tax-raising costs. Results point to substantial regional welfare effects. We stress the need to account for changing regional economic structure in this kind of evaluation framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How is the helping relationship between social workers and their clients mediated by institutional practices and forms? This article explores the roles that institutional practices and documents play at the very inception of the helping relationship between social workers and voluntary clients who are mothers. Based on an institutional ethnography in a social services department in Israel, we make visible the ways in which taken-for-granted institutional practices and forms—from the outset—can inhibit the helping relationship between social workers and clients. The insights of fourteen social workers, twenty mother-clients and textual analysis of institutional forms that frame the beginning of the helping relationship are utilised as a starting point from which to explicate how institutional practices and forms shape and govern the helping relationship in social work. We conclude with a call for a more transparent and creative approach to first encounters such that institutional practices and forms are reconsidered as gateways to supportive helping relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the outcomes of a study in which an early and comprehensive discharge planning protocol was used by social workers in an acute-care center in Israel. Comparison patients received standard social work services provided by the department. Telephone follow-up interviews were conducted at 3-weeks and 2-months intervals post discharge. The expected outcomes of reduced rates of emergency room visits and readmissions, or greater satisfaction with health services were not achieved. Rather, the study group patients had significantly higher rates of emergency room visits, and tended to be less satisfied with discharge planning and significantly less satisfied with post-hospital health services. No differences in readmission rates were observed. The study patients were more likely to be discharged to a home-care program and to have received such services or still be in the LTC institutions to which they had been referred at follow-ups. The difference in rate of emergency room visits between the two groups decreased when controlling for type of service and for satisfaction in a regression model. Implications for social work practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbors have a proximate position for detecting in-home emergencies and providing critical assistance. This cross-sectional study tested neighbors' helping behaviors during intimate partner violence emergencies in a sample of 384 Israeli adults. The aim was to identify potential differences in bystander response depending on the identified victim's gender and the bystander's gender and sociocultural group affiliation (i.e., liberal egalitarian or conservative traditional). Four hypothetical scenarios were presented to participants in which either a male or female was the identified victim; the IPV was mutual (i.e., both the male and the female parties were victims); or the victim's gender was unknown to participants. The highest levels of behavioral responses emerged for the case with a female victim of IPV, and the lowest occurred for the case in which only a male experienced violence. Males preferred personal intervention, whereas females preferred calling welfare services or the police. Conservative traditional individuals preferred calling a religious authority significantly more than liberal egalitarian participants. Results highlight the importance of providing professional interventions, enhancing public awareness, and acknowledging specific cultural beliefs and traditions to sensitively address IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the development of social work in Israel's Arab society at the turn of the millennium (1996-2006) based on semi-structured interviews with Arab social workers who worked in the profession at the time. The findings show that Arab social work developed under the shadow of an establishment that adhered to a long standing 'politics of contempt', which recognised the needs of Arab society but provided it significantly fewer resources than to its Jewish counterpart, failed to recognise Arab narratives in the training for and implementation of professional praxes, and refrained from including Arab representation in policy formulation. The primary result of these policies was the maintenance of two parallel social work structures – one for the country's Jewish citizens and the second, far poorer, for her Arab citizens – that evolved against the backdrop of the on-going Israeli-Arab conflict and the definition of Israel as a Jewish state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the marketization of social service provision impact the practices of street‐level bureaucrats (SLBs) towards their clients? To explore this question, we compare the markets for ambulatory long‐term care for the elderly in Germany and Israel, which differ in the latitude of choice offered to clients and the intensity of state regulation. Based on 52 qualitative interviews with SLBs and managers of care providers, our study shows that in both countries, institutional contexts play a significant role in shaping street‐level bureaucracy practices. We found that SLBs and managers in Israel engage in entrepreneurial behavior, whereas their German counterparts adopt administrative practices. By identifying these tendencies as responses to the respective welfare market characteristics, the article makes an important contribution to the field of comparative SLB research and furthers our understanding of the broader implications of the marketization of welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited realisation of social justice and unequal access to basic social resources place demands on social workers to take action for the shaping of good public and social policy. Previous studies have identified various challenges that limit the involvement of social workers in policy practice. These challenges have been examined to a limited extent in the context of social workers belonging to ethnic minority groups in multicultural societies. The present study examined these issues among social workers from the Palestinian-Arab minority group in Israel and revealed challenges that focus on three areas: political, cultural, and personal challenges. These challenges are closely related to the sociopolitical context of an ethnic minority coping with inequality, discrimination, and oppression, as well as the social and cultural gaps in the contexts of being a majority or a minority in a multicultural society. The implications of the findings are discussed in the contexts of policy, practice, and cultural training for policy practice in multicultural societies. IMPLICATIONS Social workers from ethnic minority groups face political, cultural, and personal challenges that limit their involvement in policy design processes. These social workers need to be supported and provided with appropriate resources and training to operate in policy arenas in cross-cultural political situations. Social work training frameworks need to provide knowledge and skills in a sociopolitical context and the support required to promote involvement in policy practice. Policies formulated by professional bodies can support the involvement of social workers from minority groups in policy practice through critical awareness of the promotion of social justice and the reduction of inequality. Increased focus on promoting equality of opportunity in the welfare system as well as in allocating resources and means can enable minorities to live better lives and prevent feelings of oppression and exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the working poverty rate in advanced economies is about 7%, the demographic composition of the working poor varies considerably across countries. Providing an in-depth look at the demographic composition of working poverty, this paper builds on a typology of three major antecedents of poverty among workers – age, household structure, and minority status - and documents their changing association with the likelihood of poverty in Germany and Israel for a 21-year span during which both countries underwent major labor market and welfare reforms. The paper utilizes data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the Israeli Income Survey, 1991–2011, and includes logistics models and a decomposition analysis of the demographic components of trends in working poverty. Results document a pronounced increase in poverty risks among the Arab population and households with more than two children in Israel since 2000. Contrastingly, the most pronounced changes in Germany have occurred among single-headed households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic groups exist almost everywhere. Generally, each group is related to uniformly, although it may comprise several subgroups. An example is Israel's Palestinian-Israeli population, which consists of three ethnic–religious subgroups: Muslims, Christians and Druze. They coexist in nearly all domains of life, but maintain separate schools and family law courts. Most of the professional literature on Palestinian-Israelis, especially in Israel, ignores their differences. This qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews conducted in 2018, highlights this lacuna in the context of the demand for multicultural social work. Participants were forty-two male and female social workers—roughly one-third each Muslims, Christians and Druze—in welfare bureaus in ethnically–religiously mixed Palestinian-Israeli localities. The findings reveal that the ethnic–religious composition of the social workers in a locality does not reflect the ethnic–religious balance of the population. Despite the interviewees' lack of formal ethnic–religious-sensitive knowledge, they displayed informal knowledge. Nevertheless, the different needs of the three ethnic–religious groups met with undifferentiated responses. The welfare bureaus prefer a uniform policy rather than recognising differences, impeding the advancement of inter-ethnic cultural competence. This article contributes to world knowledge regarding cultural competence and highlights the need for culturally competent skills that are sensitive also to ethnic–religious subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work in Israel's indigenous Arab society developed late relative to its Jewish counterpart. Based on primary and secondary sources and semi-structured interviews with Arab social workers who were employed in social welfare bureaus during the years under review, the article describes and explains the development of social work in Israel's Arab society in its formative years. The findings indicate this social work developed under government policies that recognized the needs of Arab society but allocated its welfare bureaus fewer resources than to the country's Jewish society. These policies also failed to recognize the Arab narrative in welfare delivery and to incorporate Arab representation in decision-making. The relevant bodies in Israel that dealt with social work, primarily the Ministry of Welfare, used various strategies to maintain a dual system of welfare services – one for Jewish citizens and a poorer one for Arabs citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the theoretical discussion of the historical legitimacy of single mothers by examining the construction of relationships between single motherhood and welfare policy. Specifically, the study analyses the changing discourse regarding single mothers, and the social policy designed for them, in the US, UK and Israel from the 1970s to the 2000s. These three countries are similar in terms of the embeddedness, extension and institutionalization of neoliberal ideology in their welfare policies and public discourse, together with welfare legislation affecting single mothers, yet they differ in terms of policy implementation and the history of policy development. The study examines institutional intersectionality along with cultural perceptions of single mothers in each country. Looking at both the development and the withdrawal of social rights over time, we deepen understanding of how the image of the single mother is created in the neoliberal welfare regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the social model(s) of disability, this article seeks to analyse the historical development of Israeli employment policy toward disabled people during the first decade and a half of its existence (1948–1965). Findings from primary and secondary sources suggest that throughout this period disabled people, mainly immigrants, found themselves at the lowest echelons of Israeli society and the labour market. Furthermore, the Israeli welfare state offers an interesting case study of the gap between a welfare state’s stated adherence to social justice and the more limited, and even contradictory, outcomes of its policies. Our discussion suggests that a valuable way of reframing our findings can be found in the critique of de-commodification as an inadequate concept and in the use of related concepts such as re-commodification and quasi-commodification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do welfare-reliant mothers enact their agency in relationships with social workers and social services? The present article addresses this question by investigating how twenty Israeli welfare-reliant mothers expressed different modes of human agency in in-depth interviews. Results show how research participants enact agency through (i) expressing anger, (ii) seeking help, (iii) resisting and (iv) engaging in non-action. By highlighting the multidimensional and situational nature of agency, this article offers a new relational lens for conceptualising and empirically studying human agency in social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adjustment disorder is a maladaptive reaction to common life events. Levels of adjustment disorder can serve as one of the indicators of the effectiveness of social services interventions. Yet, the role of service receipt period and of social worker alternation in explaining levels of adjustment disorder remains unclear. In order to explore this issue, structured questionnaires were distributed to a random sample of 190 clients of a social services department in Israel. Whilst no significant differences were found between service receipt periods with regard to clients' adjustment disorder, clients treated by a single social worker reported lower levels of adjustment disorder than those treated by alternating social workers. Furthermore, new and long-standing clients, treated by alternating social workers displayed higher levels of adjustment disorder than those treated by a single social worker. The importance of therapeutic alliance is discussed in light of the present findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of the withdrawal of the welfare state in Israel on the educational system using an approach from the realm of public policy--new institutionalism. This approach focuses on an analysis of institutions as a key explanation of policy-making. Using Hacker's patterns of drift, conversion and exhaustion, we analyze the institutional processes that have occurred in the Israeli educational system in the last two decades, explaining the preference for incremental changes in the face of the deficiencies and obstructions built into the educational system, over far-reaching reform. The study makes an additional contribution by highlighting the role that the retrenchment of the welfare state plays in this process. Utilizing an approach from public policy rather than pedagogy provides a better explanation for the failure of attempts at widespread reform in the Israeli educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the critical role of social workers in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and support for communities affected by the virus was stressed in international declarations of the social work profession, how social workers fulfil their role in practice has remained virtually unexplored. This question is of greater importance when it comes to ethnic minority communities that may be disproportionately vulnerable to COVID-19 in light of inequities, discrimination and marginality. This study examined action strategies adopted by social workers in the public service in response to the challenges faced by ethnic minorities during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, twenty-five in-depth interviews were conducted with social workers employed in the public welfare services in Israel, who work with Arab communities. Research findings revealed seven action strategies that have the potential to provide protection and support to a minority population group during the pandemic, bridge language and cultural gaps and promote policies that strive for social justice. The discussion emphasises the need and importance of social workers to act in a socio-cultural–political context-sensitive manner in pandemic conditions, whilst demonstrating flexibility in addressing the changing and unique needs of their clients. Implications for policy, practice and research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the course of a psychotherapy with a depressed encopretic boy, using a psychoanalytic approach. The therapy was administered in a public welfare clinic in Israel. Based on an understanding of how the boy's developmental needs had been neglected, an appropriate intervention programme was constructed and implemented. The principal insights determining the course pursued by the psychotherapist included the understanding acquired of the dysfunction and absences within the mother-child relationship during the boy's early years, and the need for the therapist to provide corrective and containing maternal emotional experiences, together with insight regarding the repercussions on the boy's emotional life. Additional understanding was gained about the role of the boy's encopresis, which comprised a symptom, and seemed to be a response to the repressed, unmodulated regressive anger towards the internal maternal figure, owing to the parents' difficulties in meeting the boy's primary developmental needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social investment is a policy approach intended to promote the social inclusion of excluded individuals and groups, mainly through labour market participation and long-term human capital development. Since the 1980's this approach has spread from Europe worldwide and is now regarded as the latest shift from both 'traditional' welfare and the unrestrained neoliberal policy implemented under the austerity regime of the last decades. Most social investment studies focus on the social and economic impacts of policy at the macro-level. This article takes a different perspective to examine how members of excluded communities experience social investment policy in their daily lives. The study analyzes qualitative data collected from a purposive sample of 96 participants from excluded communities in the North of Israel. Findings indicate that participants strongly support social investment ideas of inclusion via human capital development and the labour market. However, their experiences in both areas point to continued struggles with social mechanisms that marginalize them and reinforce multigenerational exclusion. Findings affirm critique of social investment when implemented without major structural changes. The study implications for policy suggest that, without such changes, the paradigmatic promises of social investment may further entrench social exclusion by replicating discriminatory and oppressive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, economic, political and cultural forces have altered the development of social policies and affected the life circumstances of oppressed communities in many countries. In response, calls for greater understanding and awareness of macro practice skills and interventions have been increasing within many of the social care professions. These calls have been particularly strong within the social work profession. A major field in macro social work is community practice, which aims to help people organise, plan and act for change. To date, there has been a dearth of studies examining social workers' involvement in community practice at the ground level. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 26 community social workers in public social services in Israel, this qualitative study examines community social workers' everyday experiences of community practice and the meanings they attribute to it. Findings highlight three main themes: (a) the elusive and unbounded nature of community practice; (b) the tense relations that community social workers maintain with various actors within the profession; and (c) the complex relations they maintain with the communities in which they work. We discuss these findings in light of Georg Simmel's concept of 'the stranger'. Implications to community practice are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary welfare policies in many Western countries limit means tested public assistance for the long-term unemployed and spur rapid movement into the labor market. Studies on welfare use determinants that traced these policy changes focused on individuals' characteristics, economic condition, and various policy components. Little attention was paid to welfare recipients' job quality or its role in determining welfare exit. The present study examined the contribution of various job quality aspects, beyond wages, to welfare exit among welfare recipients in Israel. We considered the use of workers' own skills and occupation, existence of standard employment contract (versus temporary), irregular work schedule, and application of mandatory and non-mandatory non-wage compensation attributes. The data derive from a national panel survey of 2,800 single-mother recipients of welfare in 2003. The results indicate the importance of these job components for welfare exit, above and beyond wages. Implications for policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Our article aims to investigate changes in the rate of informal care provision, which occurred in Israel and Italy in the last decade. In addition, we analyze typology and magnitude of the main factors contributing to explain the probability of providing informal care. Method: We used data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) at two selected time points (2006/2007 and 2015). Results: The probability of offering social support to elder family members who live outside the household has been trending down substantially over the years. The likelihood of providing unpaid care is significantly higher when one performs volunteer or charitable work and/or engages in leisure activities, and the importance of these two variables has been growing over the years. Discussion: Israel and Italy have experienced over the years a remarkable decline in the share of older adults providing informal care. The article helps to identify which factors have been associated with this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous models for policy analysis focus on understanding an existing or proposed policy. However, reviews of comprehensive welfare policies from a socio-political and historical developmental perspectives are rare. Further, most policy analysis studies are narrowly focused. Reading through many policy analysis approaches, we elicited five analytic themes that appeared in most and that are longitudinally socio-political-historical in nature: (1) the socialist/collectivist – capitalist/individualistic continuum, (2) transition from denial of child abuse and neglect to recognition, (3) the professionalization of care, (4) transition from out-of-home placement to community solutions, and (5) transition from first punishing, then protecting and providing rights. In this paper, we first present these five analytic themes with special reference to child welfare policies. Then, as a case study, we apply these themes to understand the evolution of child welfare policies in Israel. We refer to the wider gamut of social welfare that usually includes only child protective services while we also include child education, civil rights, child allowances, and social development policies. When the policies are children- and youth-related, some of the general policy trends take a softer, less-punitive, and expanding stances as compared to the welfare of adults. We conclude with suggestions regarding ways to analyze the evolution of other policies in other societal contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the findings of a research project that explored the perceptions and constructions of Israeli social workers, serving families of Ethiopian origin in Israel, regarding "risk" vis‐à‐vis the children of this community. Thirty semistructured in‐depth interviews with social workers of Ethiopian and non‐Ethiopian origin were conducted and thematically analysed. The study findings indicate that the risk posed to children from the Ethiopian community, as conceived by the social workers charged with their treatment, tends to emerge in the interface between four main contexts: the societal, the neighbourhood, the education system, and the welfare system. Resembling the cycle of poverty, in which a cyclical set of forces trap people in perpetual poverty, children from minority groups are often caught in a cycle of risk. In each of these four contexts, a circular movement was observed in the construction of risk. Breaking the circularity of "risk" requires a context‐informed approach that adopts the perspectives of critical theories, which consider structural factors, power relations, and sociopolitical context when assessing "risk" for children in general, and for children of oppressed groups in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines what motivates an organization representing a religious-national minority to provide social services. The case study for examining this issue is the Islamic Movement in Palestinian society in Israel, and specifically its social activities in the town of Kafr Qassim. The article analyzes the factors leading to the development of the movement's various services in the town by tracing their historical development and current offerings. This case study analysis is informed by two theoretical bodies of knowledge: the development of NGOs and the development of faith-based organizations. The data is based upon 17 semi-structured in-depth interviews with the heads of all the social services, social activists and municipality representatives in Kafr Qassim, where the movement was established. Some of the interviews also include tours and observations of actual services provision. Additional sources include archival documents, such as the organization's regulations and work plans. The findings identify three main factors in the development of minority religious organizations: government failure in providing services (necessary factor) and religious ideology and mobilization of political support as secondary factors. All three are grounded in the ongoing conflict between the Palestinian minority group and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many western welfare states have undergone reforms in their social services. These reforms are intended to influence the work of social workers in the public sector, and depend largely upon workers' ability and willingness to implement them. The research presented in this article addresses the reform in Israeli Departments of Social Services through the perspective of the social workers tasked with its implementation. Drawing on recent developments of the Knowledge‐Power‐Politics Triad model, the relationship between aspects of social workers' support for the reform and their perceived and actual involvement in reform policy making, general attitude towards change, and professional inclinations was examined. Our sample consisted of 180 social workers employed in departments currently implementing the reform. The study's results emphasise the vital role employee participation plays in forming support for reforms' goals, and at the same time expose the complex interplay between developing a 'sense' of participation and participation's actual realisation. They offer several insights into the way social workers' support for reform is constructed, and not less so, regarding aspects of examining such support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International organizations play a central role in disseminating social investment ideas, which serve to legitimize forms of public spending by stressing their future contribution to human capital and economic growth. However, the transition from a neoliberal to a social investment state is conditioned on national policymakers' will to embrace a post-neoliberal macroeconomic philosophy and governance. Although such change lies in the professional purview of economist-technocrats, there is little empirical research on their role as national translators of social investment ideas. This article examines economists' role in the translation of social investment ideas in Israel. By embedding specific social investment ideas within entrenched economic world views – including principles of 'responsible' macroeconomic governance – camps of Israeli economists articulate varying and sometimes competing social investment policy agendas. Lessons from Israel suggest that economists are non-negligible actors in the translation of social investment ideas. By advancing different social investment strategies, economists may assume different roles in the policymaking and politics of social investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovations in long-term care (LTC) may be useful in more effective responses to the challenges of population aging for Western societies. One of the most investigated aspects in this regard is the role of family/informal care and strategies to improve its integration into the formal care system, yielding a more holistic care approach that may enhance opportunities for aging in place. This article reports the findings of a comparative research focusing on the Italian and Israeli LTC systems as representative of the Mediterranean "family-based" care model. To analyze the innovative solutions that have been adopted or are needed to improve LTC provision in these two contexts, focus groups and expert interviews have been carried out in both countries to identify the most relevant challenges and responses to them and to highlight promising policies and strategies to be adopted or up-scaled in the future. These include multidisciplinary case and care management, a stronger connection between prevention and LTC provision, and more systematic recognition of the role and limits of informal caregivers' contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary welfare policies in many Western countries limit public assistance for the long-term unemployed and spur rapid movement into the labour market. These policies have substantially changed the trade-offs of employment and welfare-use behaviour, making employment far more attractive than welfare dependency. Despite this new reality, many welfare recipients circulate in and out of the welfare system and the low-wage labour market or become disconnected from both work and welfare. Drawing on longitudinal administrative data of single Israeli mothers who received Income Support Benefit in 2003, this study focuses on the role of structural factors, including local labour market conditions and local availability of subsidised child-care, in explaining the intensity of welfare receipt over a 51-month period. The results indicate notable diversity in welfare-use accumulation. Some mothers were classified as short- to mid-termer recipients while others showed a much more intensive use, and about a third were classified as chronically dependent. Local labour market conditions and their change over time played an important part in explaining welfare accumulation, while local child-care availability had no effect. Implications for policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]