John Gal

Is there an extended family of Mediterranean welfare states

The goal of this article is to suggest that an extended family of Mediterranean welfare states exists and that it consists of eight different nations, some of which have been ignored in the ongoing discourse on Mediterranean welfare states. More specifically, it is claimed that the extended family of Mediterranean welfare states includes Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Malta, Spain, Portugal and Turkey. The article underscores a number of features common to members of this extended family of welfare states. Finally, three overarching themes that, in the past and present, appear to underlie the commonalities of Mediterranean welfare states and that can offer potential fruitful avenues for further study will be identified and discussed. These are religion, family and the role of clientelist—particularist relations in the structuring and functioning of welfare state institutions.

Social Work Education as Professional Socialization: A Study of the Impact of Social Work Education Upon Students's Professional Preferences

Abstract Professional socialization in social work is the subject of the panel study described in this article. It focuses upon the impact of different social work education programs upon the professional preferences of students in the United States and Israel. The findings indicate that significant change with regard to some of the variables did occur between the beginning and completion of studies. This generally took the form of a declinein preferences though a number of cross-culture differences were observed. The implications of the findings for the issue of professional socialization in social work are discussed.

Policy-practice in social work and social work education in Israel

Policy-practice is a form of social work intervention that is intended to influence social policy. It is linked to an understanding of the role of social workers which places the struggle for social justice at the forefront of social work activity. However, this form of social work intervention has remained on the sidelines of social work practice and education in most welfare states. This paper seeks to understand the role that policy-practice and social policy play, and have played, in social work and social work education in Israel. The findings indicate that, despite a growth in interest in the political role of social workers in Israel during the 1970s, policy-practice has remained a mode of practice adopted by a minority of members of the profession in Israel. An empirical study of the curriculums of the schools of social work in Israel indicates that this is the case for the study program in most of the schools. The reasons for this can be linked primarily to the overwhelming influence of American social work upon the development of the Israeli profession and to the process of liberalization and privatization of the Israeli welfare state in the last two decades.

Decommodification and beyond: A Comparative Analysis of Work-Injury Programmes

This article examines work-injury programmes in different welfare states. The article’s goals are to provide a better understanding of these programmes and to further develop concepts for comparison between welfare states. Work-injury programmes are a component in the social security systems of most countries throughout the world. Nevertheless, cross-national comparative research into this field of social protection has been very limited. This article undertakes a quantitative comparison of work-injury programmes in 10 different welfare states, which represent various types of welfare regimes. Decommodification and self-development are the two key concepts that serve as a basis for the comparison and indexes measuring these two concepts are constructed. The findings of the study indicate that social-democratic welfare states, followed by Australia and Israel, have workinjury programmes with the greatest potential for decommodification and self-development. By contrast, work-injury programmes in liberal welfare states such as Britain and the United States have a low decommodifying and self-development potential.

The Perils of Compensation in Social Welfare Policy: Disability Policy in Israel

This article explores different notions of social justice implied in the concept of compensation in social welfare. Compensation is a primary allocative principle according to which programs are structured and eligibility for benefits is determined. While familiar in legal terms, the notion of compensation within the social welfare domain has a very different meaning. This article clarifies the meaning of compensation in the social welfare context and distinguishes it from two other principles: need and insurance. The implications of employing these principles in social welfare programs is illustrated by an examination of disability policy in Israel.

Immigration and the Categorical Welfare State in Israel

Immigration is an issue of growing relevance in welfare states. This article seeks to better understand the link between social welfare and immigration in Israel, a welfare state that has absorbed a greater proportion of immigrants than any other. Employing a conceptual framework that looks at both immigration policy and the structuring of the social welfare system, the article examines the impact of the Israeli system on the welfare of immigrants and members of other groups in society. The unique structuring of the social welfare system in Israel, described as categorical universalism, and its immigration policy are linked to what Sammy Smooha calls an “ethnic democracy.”

Children, Gender and Families in Mediterranean Welfare States

Tentative Table of Contents 1. Mimi Ajzenstadt and John Gal: Introduction Part I: Setting the Scene 2. John Gal: Exploring the Extended Family of Mediterranean Welfare States 3. Hadas Mandel: Gender and the Welfare State 4. Tomas Olk: Children, Childhood and the Welfare State 5. Jim McDonell: Children, Communities and Well-Being Part II: Country Studies 5. Valeria Fargion: Children, Gender and Families in the Italian Welfare State 6. Celia Valiente: Children, Gender and Families in the Spanish Welfare State 7. Azer Kilic: Children, Gender and Families in the Turkish Welfare State 8. Theano Kallinkaki: Children, Gender and Families in the Greek Welfare State 9. Mimi Ajzenstadt: Children, Gender and Families in the Israeli Welfare State 10. Index

Social Workers and Policy- Practice: The Role of Social and Professional Values

ABSTRACT Although policy practice is regarded as an essential component of social work, the actual involvement of social workers in policy practice is apparently very limited. This article presents the findings of a study that seeks to explore the role of social and professional values in support by social workers in Israel for engagement in policy practice and their actual involvement in this type of practice. The findings indicate that socioeconomic orientations and professional values have an impact on social workers perception of policy practice and the degree to which they are actually involved in the social welfare policy process. In particular, it was found that attitudes toward social justice played a major role in the social workers perceptions of, and involvement in, policy practice.

Categorical Benefits in Welfare States: Findings from Great Britain and Israel

This paper examines the role of categorical benefits; i.e. non-means-tested and non-contributory cash benefits, in Great Britain and Israel. After introducing a more rigorous definition of the term and differentiating between various types of categorical benefits, it looks at the role and recent development of these benefits in the two countries. It finds that they play a growing and significant role in the social security systems of Great Britain and Israel. An examination of the decision-making process surrounding the adoption of these benefit programmes indicates why this is so. On the basis of these findings, initial conclusions relating to changes in the nature of social security are presented.

The Long Path from a Soup Kitchen to a Welfare State in Israel

Soup kitchens are social welfare institutions that provide meals for free or for reduced prices on a regular basis. Th ere is evidence that soup kitchens have provided meals for people at different times, in diverse civilizations, and across the globe for at least six hundred years. Th ough they have clearly been sidelined by services and benefi ts provided by modern welfare states, even at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century soup kitchens continue to function across the globe in both developed and lessdeveloped nations. 1 Th ere is evidence that large-scale soup kitchens, known as imarets, were established in the fourteenth century in various parts of the Ottoman Empire and they remained a central social institution in the empire until its demise in the early years of the twentieth century. 2 Similarly, soup kitchens served as a means of ensuring food security in Beijing during the Qing dynasty in China, beginning in the late seventeenth century. 3 In Europe as well, soup kitchens provided a means of dealing with poverty and with a lack of work and resources during different periods. In Bavaria, the renowned Count Rumford (Sir Benjamin Th ompson) planned and established a public kitchen in 1790 and then successfully exported the idea to other European countries. 4