Paper short abstract:

In Israel, the kibbutz society has undergone a revolution. Two thirds of the 270 kibbutzim have moved from a socialist structure to a privatized one in the spirit of neo-liberalism. How do Kibbutz members deal with the change? How do they integrate it into their biographies? How does it affect their sense of "be-longing" and of belonging to the kibbutz? The lecture will attempt to answer these questions.

Paper long abstract:

While telling their life story people construct themselves. They organize their memories and experiences in the past to understand their condition in the present and imagine the future. They make a categorization of the social world, in past and present, and situate themselves in accordance to it.

For the two last decades kibbutz society has been involved in a revolution. This revolution has completely transformed the equalitarian and collectives structures of the classic kibbutz, and through a process of privatization has instituted a new and individualistic way of life in kibbutz. In this process of change, the traditional distribution of goods according to personal needs has been replaced by the distribution of salaries according to external market value; public dining rooms had been closed; cultural activities become rare and people retreat into the private sphere. In these circumstances, people in kibbutz have to deal with these changes and have to integrate them into their own biography.

An analysis of 40 life stories of kibbutz members, from different kibbutzim and with different social characteristics, reveals 6 different ideal types of strategy to deal with kibbutz condition in an era of change. Each strategy is a particular way of re-positioning the self in accordance with memories of the past, engagements with the present and longings for the future. Each strategy is also loaded with varied meanings concerning kibbutz history, the local community, the actual social change. All of those meanings also influence the sense of belonging to the kibbutz.