Institutions and settlers as reluctant partners: Changing power relations and the development of new settlement patterns in Israel

Rural development in the Western world takes place within a framework of constraints set by a variety of public institutions, both political and managerial. The latter are largely technocratic in that they operate according to a specific planning ideology, with their own set of in-house rules and regulations. Grass-roots aspirations are often subordinate to the controlling influences of the institutions. The introduction of new rural and rurban community models in Israel during the past 15 years has brought the planner-settler conflict into renewed focus. The changing power relations between politicians, planners and settlers have resulted in the emergence of new settlement patterns, which include the industrial village, the yishuv kehillati (community settlement) and the private settlement. The previous dominant-dependent pattern of relationship characteristic of the post-independence rural sector in Israel has given way to a reluctant partnership between the institutions and the settlers.