Social Differentiation and Locality of Residence: Spatial Distribution, Composition and Stratification in Israel / דיפרנציאציה חברתית ומקום מגורים: פיזור והרכב אוכלוסייה מרחביים וריבוד בישראל

The purpose of this study is to document the stratificational significance of inter-urban differences in Israel. Using data from Israel's first national mobility study of 1974, we examine a range of community types as defined by size, proximity to metropolitan centers, length of existence, and population composition. These community types represent thus different levels of opportunity structure, from the "central" to the "peripheral". We analyse the differential distribution and ordering of geo-cultural (or ethnic), inherited and achieved traits of the population in these community types. The analysis demonstrates the effect of community of residence on stratification processes through differential distribution of population characteristics, and the crystallization of those characteristics into distinct groups. In other words, the influence of the ecological formation is seen as mediated by differences in the population that has concentrated in it. Geo-demographic urban levels, representing varying opportunity structures, are shown to be strongly associated with ethnic origin and inherited and achieved status of the inhabitants. This association, in turn, produces differential social clustering and recruitment into strata, giving rise to locally embedded processes of strata formation. All in all, it is seen that place of residence, in terms of "central" as against "peripheral" urban levels, plays a significant part in sharpening ethnic differences and in creating a potential for the crystallization of ethnically embedded socio-economic strata which are high among those of "modern-western" background and low among those of "traditional-oriental" origin. Cities which "score" low on the hierarchy of urban opportunity structure — to wit, development towns — clearly generate the formation of low ethnic strata.