National Periphery Research Articles

Transformation in territorial concepts: from nation building to concessions

The transition to globalization, socio-cultural fragmentation and an era of peace all constrain Zionism to a restructuring in its territorial perspectives. In the nation-building era, Zionism made the territory the focus of Zionist activity, which necessitated seizing territory, controlling it, and creating an affinity and attachment and a bond of identity between the nation and the territory. Pure colonization as a central strategy for realizing these national goals originated mainly from the unique historical circumstances of Zionism and from the adoption of an ethno-national ideology. This also led to the Palestinian-Jewish conflict that concentrated on the control of territory. The national economy regime that influenced Israel in different ways also served the territorial ideology to a great degree. Peace borders will require Israel to cooperate closely with Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon in managing resources, external influences and additional common interests. The peace economy will integrate with the multi-national economy. Furthermore, in the reality of peace, Israel will have to abandon the internal colonization of areas populated by Israeli Arab citizens and give greater legitimation to their more prominent inclusion the Israeli identity. It will also become difficult for any elite group to dictate the national agenda to other marginal groups, such as Israeli Arabs, and Sephardic or Orthodox Jews, each group creates for itself considerable degree of autonomy in its own territory. In the main, the national periphery divides into an Israeli Arab periphery beside the periphery of the traditionally religious Sephardic Jews. The ultra-Orthodox Jews take control of increasingly larger Israeli space and expanding the horizons of their public involvement beyond their traditional ghettos. Each group creates for itself a different symbolic space with differing views concerning the limits of Israeli sovereignty.

Arab industrialization in Israel: ethnic entrepreneurship in the periphery

Previous studies of industrial activity in Arab settlements in Israel have been less than comprehensive. We believe that the lack of interest and data on Arab industry stems from the fact that no real effort has ever been made to further the economic development of these settlements in general and their industrial development in particular. For their economic base, the majority of Arab settlements continue to rely largely on commuting to Jewish employment centers. Nevertheless, over time, industrial entrepreneurship has emerged in Arab settlements. It is against this background that the importance of our work can be seen, for it presents, for the first time and at first hand, a thorough analysis of entrepreneurship and industrialization in the Arab sector in Israel. Arab industrial entrepreneurship in Israel is a unique phenomenon. Most previous studies have examined entrepreneurship among the ethnic minorities which, in recent years, have migrated to the metropolitan centers of developed countries. Israeli Arabs constitute an endogenous ethnic minority which is in transition from a traditional culture, based on a domestic economy, to a modern culture, which is becoming integrated into an advanced capitalist system dominated by a Jewish majority. Moreover, they inhabit highly homogeneous and segregated regions in the national periphery. They are therefore forced to overcome three complementary sets of obstacles in their integration into the larger economy and their attempt to industrialize: lack of experience and expertise in advanced forms of production and marketing; ethnic marginality; and socio-spatial peripherality. We believe the contribution of this book to be fourfold: (1) It is based on a unique case study which may expand the range of case studies available for comparative cross-cultural research; (2) it presents new theoretical formulations regarding issues that remain unresolved in the current literature on ethnic entrepreneurship; (3) it is grounded in intensive field research; and (4) it offers possible guidelines for constructive policy. It is particularly significant that the Institute of Israeli Arab Studies took it upon itself to promote this study.

ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN MIGRATION PATTERNS—DISPARITIES AMONG ARABS AND JEWS IN THE PERIPHERAL REGIONS OF ISRAEL∗

Studies of migration patterns in national peripheries of countries do not distinguish between different population groups in these regions. The present study examines spatial patterns of Arab and Jewish populations in Israel's national periphery. The migration trends of Arabs and Jews in the northern national periphery (the Galilee) are compared with those of the southern national periphery (the Negev). The Arab and Jewish populations within these areas show different spatial patterns of migration: in both the northern and the southern peripheries, Jews tend to migrate from the periphery to the core, while Arabs tend to migrate within the periphery. These differences increase the ratio of Arabs to Jews in both regions. The findings suggest that researchers should examine subregions and subgroups when studying migration patterns.

Comprehensive Economic Development: An Alternative Measure to Reduce Cocaine Supply

In light of the failure of the War on Drugs, the Bush administration is trying to implement new policies to reduce supply and demand of cocaine. Using published information and fieldwork data on Peru, the largest cocaine-producing country, this paper argues that the boom of cocaine production is the result of North-South politicoeconomic relations. In order to wean the Andean peasants from their dependence on the illicit cocaine economy, a comprehensive economic development in the national periphery is necessary.

Socio-historical factors in the evolution of Latin American cities (1850-1950)

Theories about the spatial distribution of the population should consider historical factors explaning settlement growth patterns, geographic relationships between economic organizations and structures of domination. Urban concentration has been a region-wide phenomenon for one hundrer years, begining late XIX Century. However, the rol of the cities in the development processes has been more important in those countris where the oligarchy consolidated its domination earlier. Its role stems from the expansion of commercial and financial activities in detriment of artisan industries. In this sense they were parasite cities: the ruling classes were consimers rather than savers, rentists rather than producers. Two types of cities are considered in the paper: bastion cities and central cities. They were developed during the primary export period, from the middle of the las Century until the 1920s. In the bastion city the monetary economy was restricted to the city, economic surplus was spent or reinvented almost entirely in the city while the masses of the population were kept at subsistence levels in the rural areas. The ruling classes justified their domination as something functional to their self-assigned role of spreading the civilization over a "barbaric" national periphery. Thus the bastion city generated an authoritarian political structure. In other countries the central city gave place to a broader social demographic diffusion of modern values and a more dynamic and opener environment emerged. The oligarchies imposed themselves in a less authoritarian manner and did not opposed the growth of middle classes. A greater cultural and social continuity throughout a network of medium size and small cities spread towards the national peripheries. Industrialization policies that followed the crisis of the primary-export model implied subsidies to the major cities and therefore, encouraged the spatial concentration of population. Local life was undermined and the regions lost internal integration as a result of a reorganization of national territories imposed by the emerging industrial city. Industrialization processes implied a tacit social compromise between traditional social structures and the adoption of imported technologies, between the preservation of social thierarchies and pressures towards democratization. The timing of the industrial processes is a key factor in explaining the differences among countries with regard to social urban structures and to urban physical environment as shaped by the social elites, classes and masses. The later the industrial process occured the higher is the population density in the rural areas, the lesses is the initial rate of urbanization and the higher the rate of population growth in the large cities. Urban exploition accompanying the more recent industrialization processes in Latin America is often accompanied by social marginality and a caothic growth of the large cities.

Collectivism, Regionalism and Feminism: Health Visiting and British Social Policy 1850–1975

ABSTRACTThis paper takes up three particular themes in the historical development of the present pattern of social service provision in the United Kingdom and argues that existing accounts are somewhat misleading in their treatment of these issues. The three themes are the relationship between collectivism and individualism in social policy legislation and practice, the influence of centre and periphery in British political life and, to a lesser extent, the occupational roles available to women in the social services. These questions are examined through a study of the history of health visiting. It is argued that the fluctuating fortunes of the health visiting service allow us to see more clearly the changing influence of collectivist and individualist philosophies on government policy and the degrees to which definitions of problems and possible solutions have either been imported from the national periphery to the national centre or vice versa. Insufficient attention has been given to the defeat of metropolitan individualist philosophies by the peripherally-based public health movement at the beginning of the twentieth century and to the conditions which have led to their subsequent re-emergence and the waning influence of collectivist approaches.