The course will focus on gender power relations in Israeli local and national politics and their connection to gender issues in Israel in general. It will discuss the background, processes and mechanisms of women's marginalization in political power centers and will examine various interpretations for this phenomenon. Historical processes and changes in women's political rights and status since the beginning of the 19th century will be explored through critical lenses. The students will also be exposed to the ongoing struggles, led by women's organizations, for .women's equality and political rights.
Popular culture has always been part of human society and often plays a part in social processes. Today popular culture is infused mainly by electronic media channels which turn it into an ever more influential element in the social way of life. In this course we will explore the role of popular culture in Israel and Palestine. Among the subjects that will be presented are the contribution of popular culture to the formation of nationalism, its role in crafting collective memory, structuring myths and stereotypes regarding social segments within the society, staging the conflict between Jews and Arabs within Israel and the region, routinizing militaristic mindset, and appropriating global trends. Special attention will be given to the gradual erosion of the unifying social model of “melting pot” in Israeli society and the rise of alternative models. These subjects will be presented and discussed in reference to historical and modern textual documents, television and cinematic products, advertisements, popular music, radio broadcasts and literature.
This course will address central issues in Israeli politics in a comparative perspective. Specifically, we will deal with Israeli democracy and current politics; highlighting Israeli electoral system, parties and state institutions – and compare those essential institutions to other modern democracies. Students in this course will first be introduced to the basic concepts and approaches used by comparative politics scholars. Emphasis will be on the mapping and classification of modern democracies (about 15 countries), classification of electoral systems and the political consequences various methods, the advantages and weaknesses of each method, and the differences in the functioning and political behavior in several countries that will be under the study. Throughout the course, we will deal in a comparative perspective with the key political processes that led some countries to reform their electoral systems, the implications of these changes and the discussion surrounding the electoral reform in Israel that is still present in those days.
Different countries and different societies have different ranges of social policies – between Socialism and Capitalism. Those are influenced to a large extent, by the availability of social services at the community, the local authority, the regional, the national and the international levels. Those social services may be delivered by the public sector, by the voluntary and/or by the for-profit sectors. Social policies influence the financial, the physical, the mental and the emotional state of the citizens. Simply put, social policies may create mental tensions and stress on individuals, families, groups and communities that has an effect on our quality of life. For example: in cases of poverty; hunger; physical or mental disability; interpersonal and inter-group violence; war and political instability; natural disasters and other communal and/or environmental stressors. The course will introduce and discuss the history, the theories and the practices of Social Policy in Western countries and in Israel. It will emphasize topics such as poverty and wealth; the Welfare State; differences between Governmental and Non-Governmental social services; the privatization of services, and the importance of interorganizational and inter-disciplinary collaborations.
איזור אישי
