In this paper, I introduce the concept of pseudo-formality as a novel form of relational work in economic sociology. Pseudo-formality refers to the performative use of formal aesthetics, such as contracts and repayment plans, in financial exchanges between close ties—as both parties tacitly understand that the agreement is flexible and not legally binding. I argue that pseudo-formality works by leveraging the signaling function of formal market elements in a way that contradicts their typical purpose, allowing for the compartmentalization of the economic and social aspects of the exchange. Through two complementary vignette experiments, I demonstrate that pseudo-formal framing enhances the perceived dignity of the recipient and the respect conveyed by the giver, compared to formal, informal, or gift-based arrangements. This effect partially mediates the relationship between the type of exchange and its overall acceptability. This research contributes to relational work perspectives in economic sociology by identifying a prevalent but understudied strategy for navigating the intersection of intimacy and economy, and highlights the adaptability of economic forms for relational purposes. The findings have practical implications for interpersonal exchanges as well as the design of financial assistance programs and policies, suggesting that pseudo-formal structures can provide a dignified and empowering means of support.

The aim of this research is to examine technological entrepreneurship activity in Israel’s geographical peripheries compared to the core region. Economic theory suggests limited resources and opportunities for technological entrepreneurship in peripheral regions, yet our database includes many such ventures. The study applies institutional theory to explore opportunities for technological entrepreneurship, focusing on Scott’s three pillars: regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive. The database includes over 15,000 technological ventures that operated or ceased to operate in the southern and northern geographic peripheries, in comparison to the geographic core of Israel between 2000 and 2019. Logistic regressions were used to examine differences between the northern and southern peripheries compared to the core in Israel regarding the institutional opportunities for the development of technological entrepreneurship. The main findings show that academic scientists and technological incubators have contributed to the establishment of technological entrepreneurship in the peripheries. In addition, entrepreneurs establish technology ventures in the periphery with lower odds of profit maximization and higher risks of closure compared to the core of Israel. Furthermore, the periphery facilitates entrepreneurial activity of underrepresented groups including women, entrepreneurs without prior experience, and entrepreneurs without partners. The current research holds significant importance in understanding opportunities for technological entrepreneurship in spaces. We show that institutional forces expand the range of entrepreneurial opportunities in peripheral spaces. This institutional expansion of opportunities is crucial for understanding geographic spaces and their characteristics. Even if a geographic space is perceived as lacking entrepreneurial potential, there are opportunities within that space that can be designed and expanded.

The need for novel and innovative solutions in society seems greater than ever before. Organizations and interorganizational arrangements such as networks, communities, platforms, and consortia have to organize creative processes in order to provide innovative products and services and/or excel with innovative structures and processes in more or less competitive environments. In particular, if so-called grand challenges or wicked problems are at stake, the production of new knowledge, products and services, or processes requires the crossing of organizational boundaries (Gray et al., 2022) into what is often termed “in-between spaces” (Yström & Agogué, 2020). These spaces are emerging in social interactions, potentially leading to creativity and innovation, and, at the same time, enabling the necessary interactions.

In 2018, the Jewish rural space in Israel entered a spiral crisis following the collapse of one of the main youth movements active in it. This crisis, which involved opposing ideological perceptions, political interests and organizational struggles, raised questions around the identity of contemporary rural space in Israel, its purpose and future. Analyzing the discussions around this crisis, the current paper aims to explore the role of identity and symbolic capital in rural-urban dynamics and their implications concerning the physical boundaries between the two.

Acquisition of territory by force, once permitted, is strictly forbidden today. However, this normative shift has not led to a reconceptualization of annexation, which is still understood as the extension of sovereignty through formal state acts. Maintaining the requirement of formal state acts, we argue, undermines the norm and is further analytically flawed and generates a rule-of-law problem: it fails to capture instances of undeclared annexation, and incentivises states to avoid formal proclamations of annexation to evade legal consequences. This article therefore proposes a new theory of annexation. Drawing on theories of bureaucracy and administration, we suggest three qualifications for annexation: the normative organising framework with which the state manages the territory reflects a perception of the territory as part of its own; the organisational structure of control assimilates the management of the territory into the bureaucratic machinery of the state; and the symbolic performance of power erases symbolic differences between the territory and the annexing state. This reconceptualisation of annexation may support the goal of the contemporary international legal order to suppress aggressive use of force and ensure the self-determination of peoples.

This article explores odour as a powerful mechanism in reproducing caste and investigates how odour affects caste boundaries. Based on embodied ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted in Ajmer, India, I show that odours create symbolic boundaries for ex-untouchables. I argue that these malodours are structurally produced within and around the spatial boundaries of ex-untouchable ghettos through the interaction of disadvantaged topographies, filth, caste occupations and urban poverty. The article makes three key contributions: first, it establishes that odour is not only cultural but also structural; second, it introduces a sensorial perspective to studying segregation; and third, it identifies a novel mechanism on the social reproduction of caste hierarchies.

Expanding on the political process approach to the relationship between state actions and violent mobilization, we argue that the state’s structure of political opportunities and threats (or SPOT) informs and is informed by the repressive and conciliatory actions the state employs. We further argue that changes in the state’s SPOT shape its capacity to effectively implement discriminate or indiscriminate repressive and conciliatory actions, with different effects on levels of insurgent violence. Key findings from an analysis of Israeli state actions and Palestinian violent attacks during the first Intifada as a whole, as well as during subperiods representing specific SPOTs, reveal that favorable state SPOT is more likely to be associated with the state’s use of discriminate actions. Moreover, discriminate actions, whether repressive or conciliatory, are more likely to bring about a decrease in insurgent violence, while indiscriminate actions of both types tend to lead to an increase in violence.

Political sociologists have articulated state-making as the concentration of power and violence within state apparatuses. However, classical theories have often overlooked the distinctive characteristics of settler colonial nation-state formation, whose raison d’état is the preservation of settler sovereignty and supremacy, accumulated largely through practices of dispossession, appropriation, subjugation, and elimination, and whose power is dispersed at times to settler-citizens. Examining the case of Israel, and identifying divergent ideal types of settler colonial violence, the article pinpoints the unique features that define Israel as a settler colonial state. Moreover, it explores how the monopoly on violence is variably applied depending on contingent dynamics, and dialectical interactions with the indigenous and their habitus of sumud (steadfastness). The analysis delves into the themes of state violence and the state of exception, examining the case of the ‘Dignity Intifada’ in May 2021, alongside the genocidal war since October 7, 2023. By comprehending the material and symbolic processes shaping the persistence of settler colonialism in its different formations, the article contributes to a nuanced understanding how ‘war-by-other-means’ and indigenous resistance both endure.

A few years ago, my mother revealed to me that she had run up some considerable credit card debt, mostly on account of un-foreseen medical expenses. She was able to meet the monthly payments, but with a 20% interest rate, it would take many years and several thousand dollars in additional interest pay-ments to close it out. Hearing this, I urged my mother to take out a home equity loan in the amount of the credit card balance and immediately pay it off, replacing it with a more affordable 5% mortgage-saving her thousands of dollars each year. I even suggested she take out some extra cash to remodel the bathrooms (something she had been wanting to do for a while already) and still end up paying much less every month than with the credit card. My mother did not take my good advice. Her face instead turned red as I explained the math of it, and she began to stam-mer and became quite incensed.

While the praxeological turn in social research has resulted in many empirical studies, there are few works utilizing this concept as a framework to analyze complex architectural–anthropological phenomena, in particular in sacred geographies. This study addresses this gap by integrating architectural and anthropological approaches to explore interactions between humans, non-humans and what are considered sacred environments.,It presents case studies of the womb–tomb archetypes of Rabbi Zechariah and Rabbi Avdimi in northern Israel to demonstrate how ritualistic practices shape and are shaped by these structures that are deeply connected to human anatomy, lifecycles and territoriality.,Our analysis uses isovist analysis to examine the spatial dynamics of sacred architectures, which is then applied to Navisworks Roamer 3D Viewer to estimate the materials from a sacred architectural–anthropological perspective that better reflects body movements and ritualistic performances.,Based on our findings from interviews, observations and architectural measures, we reveal how these practices simultaneously articulate land as property—an exclusive, territorial claim rooted in religious and political narratives—and as connectivity, emphasizing relational ties that foster a sense of belonging and interdependence with the land.,This duality is represented by the embodied gestures of bending, crawling and touching in these spaces, which establish both symbolic ownership and deep relationships with the environment.,The findings emphasize the importance of bodily engagements and narrative constructions in reimagining human–environment relationships and contribute to the broader discourse on practice-based boundary making approaches in architectural studies.,They also demonstrate how body-environment practices shape ongoing negotiations of land, belonging and totemic relationships within complex cultural landscapes.