The concept of diffusion: Dimensions of time and space in cooperative agricultural organization in non-Jewish villages in Israel

Analysis of exposure duration of & topographical resistance to propagation (ie, diffusion) of a particular phenomenon is applied here to the rate at which cooperative farming has penetrated non-Jewish villages in Israel. Though traditional Arab clan structure may account for a decrease in size from cooperative units numbering 80-450 persons until the mid-1960s, to new societies thereafter generally numbering 20-80 members, the increases in the total N of cooperatives & in their spatial distribution is attributed to diffusion. In other regions of Israel, distance from older cooperative settlements, nonaccess to water, & mountainous barriers tend to slow or prevent adoption of the cooperative format. 6 Figures, 12 References. P. Gockel.