From pioneer to freier: The changing models of generalized exchange in Israel

Abstract

This study analyzes a major shift in the Israeli discourse of generalized exchange as reflected in key role models and images of social involvement, voluntarism and public good provision. It highlights the progressive decline of the image of the pioneer or ‘halutz’ and the parallel emergence of the image of the ‘freier’, a vernacular model of a sucker, as a meta-comment on the pioneer model and on Israeli existence in general (2).