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Abstract
Researching kibbutz changes in a two-year study of 34 kibbutzim through referents, interviews, economic and demographic data and documents, enabled the author to discern three main trends: privatization in consumption, interweaving with the surroundings, and managerialism. These trends are related to a deepening comprehensive crisis the kibbutzim have been undergoing since the mid 1980s. Differing types of attitudes among social groups suggest differential seeking of autonomy. The rank and file seek independence from the managers, while managers try to reinforce their independence from public control. Both increase personal options through the interweaving process. A creeping unintended transformation produces an incipient split in the kibbutz identity as a geographical unity and a communal association. This split develops through reciprocal service supplies with the surroundings and diversification of population in the kibbutz. The conclusion points to diversification among kibbutzim in external interweaving, basic social structure, distribution system, and identity as community or organization.