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Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
1
Globalization, Place and the Life Course: Local economies and
middle-class transition to adulthood in two Israeli cities
Guy Shani
Bar-Ilan University, Israel; The College of Management Academic Studies, Israel
Eyal Bar-Haim
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Abstract
This study explores the ramifications of local economic differences on entering adulthood in the
context of globalization. The effect of globalization on patterns of entering adulthood is usually
perceived as filtered by particularities at the national level and as differentiated mainly by class.
However, the creation of economic differentiation within the same country at the regional and
municipal level is mostly overlooked. To address this gap, we compare the achievement of first
homeownership among middle-class households in two Israeli cities differing in the concentration
of economic branches and in housing prices. Utilizing in-depth interviews (n = 60 (cases); n = 106
(interviewees)) we show how unstable forms of employment and exponentially rising housing
prices in one city, and stable employment accompanied by still affordable housing costs in the
other, support non-traditional and traditional patterns of entering adulthood respectively. We
then analyse the Israeli census to confirm different patterns of entering adulthood among educated
residents of the two cities. Thus, we demonstrate how local economies shape different patterns of
entering adulthood within the same country and among members of a similar class, suggesting that
the relationship between class and life course is also mediated by place .
Guy Shani, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 5290002, Israel.
Email: gshani@gmail.com
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
2
Introduction
In this article, we examine local patterns of transition to adulthood among middle-class
households in two Israeli cities. Changes in the traditional pattern of entering adulthood have
been documented in many countries around the world (Buchmann and Kriesi, 2011; Mills and
Blossfeld, 2006; Shanahan, 2000). These have been explained by the proliferation of non-stable
forms of employment due to globalization, neo-liberalization and the post-industrial economy,
which have increased economic and social uncertainties, ”disrupting” the traditional life course
(Bradley and Devadason, 2008; Golsch, 2003, 2003; Mills and Blossfeld, 2006). Another, more
recent explanation involves rising housing prices around the world, also an effect of
globalization. Rising prices have been shown to delay and destabilize the achievement of
traditional markers of adulthood such as marriage and family formation (Bleemer et al., 2014;
Bruce and Kelly, 2013; Hughes, 2003; Lauster, 2008; Lennartz et al., 2016; Shanahan, 2000;
Smock et al., 2005). Thus, current explanations rest heavily on the effects of globalization on
labour and housing markets at the national level.
In this article, we focus on the regional concentration of economic branches (Storper,
1995; Whitford and Potter, 2007) as an aspect of the globalized economy, one that has been
mostly overlooked by the current literature. Economic branches differ not only in the availability
of jobs and income levels but also in terms of employment Kristal and Cohen, 2017), which
serve as a key factor in shaping entrance to adulthood (Blossfeld et al., 2006; Golsch, 2003). The
regional and municipal concentration of economic branches, along with other global factors (e.g.
Haramati and Hananel, 2016), can also contribute to the rise of housing prices in certain areas
more than others within the same country (Butler and Lees, 2006; Florida, 2017). However, to
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
3
date, only a handful of studies (Hughes, 2003; Moose 2014) have explored the effects of local
labour and housing markets, and those have focused only on job availability and income levels.
To address the gaps in current literature we utilize both qualitative and quantitative
methodologies to compare patterns leading to first homeownership among middle-class
households in two distinct Israeli cities - Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel’s central metropolis and the local
“capital” of the post-industrial economy, and Beersheba. a peripheral metropolitan city
characterized by a concentration of the petrochemical industry. Drawing on in-depth interviews,
we show how the local labour and housing markets underlie the prevalence of traditional patterns
of entering adulthood in Beersheba and the diversification of “non-traditional” trajectories
leading to homeownership in Tel-Aviv. Second, using the Israeli census of 2008, we compare
young educated people in Tel-Aviv and Beersheba. We estimate several life events and
trajectories - buying a home, marriage and having children. We find a consistent delay among
tertiary educated people who live in Tel-Aviv in comparison to their peers in Beersheba.
Most scholars today view the link between globalization and life course as mediated by
the state and by class positions. Our paper supports this view but also considers how
globalization creates a differentiation of living conditions and experiences within the same
country, thus making the relationship between class and the life course one that is mediated by
place.
The changes in life course transitions
Since the 1980’s, scholars have shown that the transition to adulthood is becoming prolonged,
fractured and de-standardized. Traditional markers of adulthood, such as stable employment,
homeownership and family formation are postponed and achieved in more diverse patterns
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
4
(Billari and Liefbroer, 2010; Blossfeld et al., 2006; Bradley and Devadason, 2008; Brückner and
Mayer, 2005; Buchmann and Kriesi, 2011; Golsch, 2003; Shanahan, 2000). Furthermore, the
meaning of adulthood is also changing, and becoming more a manner of individual conception
(Arnett, 2000; Benson and Furstenberg, 2006; Blatterer, 2007; Silva, 2012).
More recently, scholarly attention has shifted from universal explanations to more
nuanced accounts of various patterns of entering adulthood in different countries (Brückner and
Mayer, 2005; Buchmann and Kriesi, 2011; Mayer, 2009; Shanahan, 2000 ; Yopo Díaz, 2018).
Mills and Blossfeld (2006), for example, suggested that the uncertainties created by globalization
are filtered through national welfare regimes and specific employment, educational, and family
systems. As young adults respond to specific uncertainties in their countries, class and country-
specific patterns of entrance into adulthood emerge.
Based on this well accepted explanatory framework we address the way global forces and
processes manifest themselves differently not only at the national level, but also within the same
country.
Globalization and localities beyond the rural-urban split
Acknowledging differences between central cities and the periphery, early scholars in the field
(Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002) expected global changes to eventually spread from centre to
periphery. However, three decades of studies of regional economies have demonstrated that
globalization actually increases regional concentration in various economic branches, especially
within the post-industrial economy (Combes and Overman, 2004; Sassen, 2006; Storper, 1995;
Whitford and Potter, 2007). Since economic branches tend to differ in the availability of
employment, income levels, and stable or flexible terms of employment, regional concentration
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
5
could very well play a role in shaping local patterns of entering adulthood within the same
country. Similarly, housing prices, as well as the availability of types of dwelling, rental housing,
and other housing characteristics, also exhibit significant spatial differentiation (Ben-Shahar,
2015; Bleemer et al., 2014; Hughes, 2003;). Still, only a handful of studies have investigated the
effect of regional differences in labour and housing markets on the transition to adulthood.
Comparing different U.S metropolitan areas that are differentiated by income
opportunities and housing costs, Hughes (2003) found that differences between predicted
earnings and housing costs underlay the choice of alternative domestic arrangements other than
marriage. Moose (2014) has focused more specifically on regional concentration in the post-
industrial economy. Comparing two Canadian cities, he found a higher level of income
inequality among young adults residing in the city where the local job-market has a “more
pronounced post-Fordist composition”. Hence, Hughes’ study demonstrates the effect of local
economies on life-course transitions, without discussing the role of local differentiation in
economic branches. Moose’s study discusses the latter but focuses on inequality among young
adults rather than on life-course transitions. Together, these studies lay the foundation for
considering the importance of local economies at the municipal level but leave much room for
further investigation. ש הז לע רבדלו ליחתהל ילואנ תפסונ הדובע םג תונשל ףסונב תילאוטפסנוקה המרב תשרד
ןויד רצייל זאו . הלעמל תרתוכה המודכו םוקמ לע
Transition to adulthood in Israel
Israeli society is divided by ethnicity, nationality and religiosity. It is thus important to note from
the outset that our analysis pertains to young adults from the Jewish population who are not
religious. Other groups, such as Arabs and Orthodox Jews, exhibit distinct patterns of entering
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
6
adulthood due to their unique structural position and/or cultural characteristics ( Okun, 2013;
Bar-Haim and Semyonov, 2015).
The literature on young adults in Israel is scarce (but see: Almog & Almog, 2013),
however, general trends are similar to those in many western countries. Although there are no
contemporary studies of the timing of finding meaningful employment in Israel, Israel’s job
market has experienced changes that in other countries have prolonged and hindered it
(Rosenhek & Shalev, 2014). With regards to other significant markers such as marriage and
buying one’s first home, studies show that though Israel is a familial society, there is a steady
rise in the age of first marriage (Okun, 2013), in cohabitation (Manor & Okun, 2016), and in
singlehood (Lahad 2017). There has also been a decline in homeownership among the younger
generation following a national housing crisis starting at 2008 (Raviv, 2019). The existence of
three years of mandatory military service should also be noted, since it delays the start of higher
education and the entrance into the job-market for most Israeli Jews (with the exemption of the
Ultra-Orthodox).
Thus, its unique characteristics notwithstanding, the general pattern of entering adulthood
among young, non-religious, middle-class Jews in Israel is similar to that of other western
countries. We therefore use data from Israel to investigate the theoretical question of the role of
local economic conditions on shaping the entry into adulthood.
Research strategy
This paper compares young middle-class adults in two Israeli cities by utilizing both qualitative
and quantitative analysis. Our use of in-depth interviews enables us to identify the nexus
between local economic conditions and subjects’ life-choices and biographical narratives. We
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
7
then seek to verify our findings and test our argument regarding the effect of place on life-course
transitions in a representative sample based on secondary use of the Israeli census.
Qualitative analysis
Our qualitative analysis draws on a wider project comparing the residential choice process of
middle-class, first-time homebuyers in two Israeli cities (Author). The first is Tel Aviv, the
country’s economic and cultural centre. The second is Beersheba, a peripheral metropolitan area.
During this project, 30 interviews involving 106 interviewees were conducted in each city with
individuals and couples. Interviewees were recruited from personal networks, Facebook groups,
and real-estate fairs. The interviews were semi-structured and focused on the interviewees’ lives
and residential histories, their decision to buy a first home, and their locational choice process.
Most interviews lasted about two hours. The interviews were recorded, professionally
transcribed, and analysed with the assistance of Atlas.ti.
For the purpose of this paper, we analyse the timing of buying a first home and its
relation to finding employment, marriage, and the birth of children. We employ a broad
definition of the traditional pattern of entering adulthood as one where achieving homeownership
is tied, chronologically and narratively, to these events and where there is a sequential pattern
leading to homeownership.
We identify middle-class households by the higher education of at least one member of
the household and the ability to purchase a home (Forrest & Hirayama, 2015; Butler & Savage,
2013). This broad definition does not ignore the growing differentiation within the middle-class
(Savage et al., 2013). It is an analytical strategy aimed at avoiding the reduction of local patterns
to social-actors’ profiles, and at allowing a comparison between Tel-Aviv and Beersheba, two
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
8
cities that both differ in the profile of their middle-class population and contain significant
variations within it.
As a result, the social profile of interviewees differed not only between the two cities but
also within each city. On the average, the interviewees in Tel-Aviv were more educated, earned
higher wages, and came from more economically established families. Still, there was
considerable variation among interviewees in each city and there were numerous cases of
interviewees with similar socio-economic attributes in both cities. More importantly, patterns in
each city could not be fully accounted for by the economic ability of interviewees at the time of
buying their home, even when considering the support of their parents. All in all, the general
trend in each city transcended differences between interviewees and it is this dissimilarity
between urban contexts and its underlying causes that we wish to explore.
Quantitative analysis
Our main data source for our quantitative analysis is the most recent Israeli census, conducted in
2008
1
. We restricted the sample to include only Tel-Aviv and Beersheba. We then further
restricted the sample to include only young adults (ages 25 to 34), arriving at a sample of 15,690
individuals. Our variables of interest are:
Education - divided by us into two categories – a group of those who possess BA or higher degrees
and a group of those who do not. Combined with age, this variable enables us to identify the group
of “young educated” residents in Tel-Aviv and Beersheba.
Family transitions - we include two separate dummy variables as dependent variables to identify
these transitions: marriage and having at least one child.
1
While the current rise in housing prices started in 2008, the ratio between housing prices in the two cities was
similar in 2008 and the ensuing decade.
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
9
Homeownership - As with family transition, we consider owning a home in which the respondent
lives to be a transition.
Income - based on 12 categories of gross income from salaried work, we constructed a continuous
variable that represents the mid-range of each income category.
We estimated a set of logistic regressions to predict the log odd ratios of all family transitions
(marriage, having children homeownership) by tertiary education. We also controlled for income,
gender, and years living in each locality. The latter factor is of particular important in addressing
potential selection bias, as Beersheba residents are more likely to be born in the city while Tel-
Aviv residents are more likely to move to Tel-Aviv at an older age.
Local Causation and Self-Selection
Before presenting our findings, we would like to address our treatment of local causation
and to stress that we do not wish to advance a strong version of local determinism. Our argument
does not ignore the role of structural factors but examines if and how local configurations of two
key structural factors result in different social patterns. We do not reject self-selection either.
Following Sampson )2012), we view self-selection as an integral aspect of locality effect;
however, in this paper we place our focus on other mechanisms of local causation. Furthermore,
we argue that both empirically and theoretically our findings cannot be fully accounted for by
self-selection. Empirically, in Tel-Aviv, only 24% of interviewees moved to the city at a time in
their life which was clearly related to delayed adulthood, and only 16% presented their move as
motivated by the wish to enjoy the freedoms of this period. In Beersheba, only 25% of
interviewees moved to the city with relation to family formation. Among these, half were of
cases where interviewees left the city for a few years and then returned. In addition, in our
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
10
quantitative analysis we also provide control for years since entering the city (years since internal
migration).
The reduction of locality effect to self-selection is problematic from a theoretical
standpoint, too. The concept of self-selection rests on a separation between ends and means, and
between preferences and the processes leading to one’s choice (Whitford, 2002). These
dichotomies have been specifically criticized by various strands of sociological theories of praxis
(Bourdieu, 2000, 2005), valuation and evaluation (Lamont, 2012), and choice (Illouz, 2012), and
even by some psychological models of choice (Zsambok and Klein, 1996). Ultimately, as
established by Bourdieu, dispositions are generative and result from the interaction between
social actors’ attributes and social space. It is true that Bourdieu’s work, like much sociological
research, has been a-local. However, social space cannot be easily separated from local space
and the effect of the latter has been increasingly recognized in recent studies (Benson and
Jackson, 2017; Brown-Saracino, 2015; Cutts and Widdop, 2016; Savage, 2013).
The two cities
Tel-Aviv is Israel’s centre and an emerging global city with strong links to the global
culture and economy, especially the high-tech industry. Several works have documented the
concentration of the financial, technological, and cultural industries in Tel-Aviv (Alfasi and
Fenster, 2005; Felsenstein et al., 2013; Kipnis, 2004, 2005; Roper and Grimes, 2005). As a
result, Tel Aviv and its metropolitan area are the parts of the country with the highest
concentration of “high quality” middle-class jobs (Bank of Israel 2013). Occupations and
economic branches associated with the new economy are a major source of employment for the
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
11
city’s middle-class. On a one to ten scale of socio-economic ranking of localities in Israel, Tel-
Aviv is in the eighth highest category (Central Bureau of Statistics 2015).
Beersheba is the central city of the country’s southern region, which is peripheral
culturally and economically. The city ranks in the fourth category in the Central Bureau of
Statistics socio-economic scale and the whole southern region has the lowest concentration of
“high-quality” jobs in the country (Bank of Israel, 2013). However, Beersheba does host a major
hospital, a research university, and government offices, thus making white-collar jobs in the
public sector a major source of employment in the city (Avni et al., 2016). Another major source
of middle-class jobs is found in the petrochemical industry clustered around the city (Gradus,
2001; Portnov and Erell, 1998). Recent attempts to develop a local high-tech job market focusing
on bringing large multinational and governmental employers to the city have yielded limited
results.
These regional economic patterns translate not only into differences in employment opportunities
but also into differences in labour conditions and stability, as summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Indicators of employment relations among individuals with B.A and above.
(Source: authors analysis of 2008 Census, 2010 Employees Survey, and the 2008 and 2012 Social
Surveys)
2
Tel-Aviv
Beersheba
Self-Employment
15%
3%
Works more than 50 hours a
week
21%
12%
2
Data files were obtained from the Israel Social Science Data Center (ISDC) at the Hebrew University.
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
12
Works under a personal
contract3
66%
43%
Places of work in the last 10
years2
21% worked in three to five
places
10% worked in three to four
places
In Addition, while housing prices have risen steeply in both cities since 2008, there is substantial
variation among them. Thus, to households positioned in the sixth and higher percentiles of
income distribution, Tel-Aviv is the least affordable major city in terms of housing prices while
Beersheba remains the most affordable (Ben-Shahar, 2015).
Middle-class housing patterns in Beersheba are also much more uniform. Most middle-
class families are concentrated in new neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city; only 25% live
in rented homes and the city’s rental market in general is concentrated in the poor
neighbourhoods around the university. In Tel Aviv, middle-class households and families are
spread across the city, as reflected in processes of urban renewal and gentrification (Marom,
2014). Furthermore, 35% of middle-class families live in rented dwellings and the city’s rental
market is also spread across various neighbourhoods.
Finally, it is important to note that in Israel, despite the small distances, commuting
between metropolitan areas is rare. According to our analysis of census data, 88% of tertiary-
educated residents of Beersheba work within the metropolitan area. In Tel-Aviv, 85% work
within it.
3
This estimator is based on the Israeli Social Survey, which offers a limited sample size and should be approached
with caution.
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
13
Results: Local economic structures and entrance into adulthood
Beersheba - following the “natural” path
In Beersheba, the traditional pattern of entering adulthood dominates. The average age of
interviewees was 30 – near the national marriage age of 27.8. In 76% of the cases, interviewees
bought or started to look for a home at the time of marriage and/or having their first child, and in
80% of cases at least one member of the household held steady gainful employment.
Furthermore, the traditional life course dominated the narratives of nearly all the interviews in
Beersheba.
Some couples commented explicitly on the story of the purchase of their home as
reflecting the “normal path”, but the influence of the traditional life course on interviewees’
accounts and choices was mostly apparent in its taken for granted status.
Take for example, the answer of Dana (F, 31, NGO employee) and Aviad (M, 31,
electrical engineer) answer to the question, “What made you start thinking of buying a home?”
Dana : We started thinking about children.
Interviewer: So, that was the trigger?
Dana: No, I think that the trigger… it was just natural.
Aviad: Precisely. I think that the trigger is the next step after marriage. The next stage after
marriage is a home…
While the view of buying a home as a “natural” advancement in life reflects a common
attitude in Israel (Weiss, 2014), in Beersheba it was also based on local conditions which enabled
and reinforced it. As often in Beersheba, the ability of this couple to buy a home at a relatively
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
14
early stage of their lives and careers was encouraged by their stable employment and the still
affordable housing prices that characterize the city. In relating their decision to buy a home,
Aviad said:
When I started my job, all the older guys (…) pressured the younger workers to buy a
home (…) They said that there is nothing wiser than buying in the first year on the job,
because you have a steady job, you'll always have the money to pay for your mortgage,
and prices will always go up.
The example of another couple, Sara (F, 34, administrator) and Hanan (M, 32, mechanical
engineer), demonstrates how stable forms of employment not only shorten the period between
finding employment and achieving homeownership but also reinforce the sequential pattern of
entering adulthood. When asked, “What happened that made you start thinking about buying a
home?”, they answered:
Hanan: [to Sara] I found a steady job, didn't I?
Sara: Yes, yes…Since he found a normal job, we felt like now we could do it. Also, we
were expecting a child.
Note how Hannan and Sara waited until one of them found meaningful employment before
starting to look for an apartment. For Sara and Hanan, as for many others in the city, the
combination of relatively scarce employment opportunities and job stability strengthened the
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
15
sequential pattern of entering adulthood. This was so because it turned finding employment into
a necessary stage that had to be met before the purchase of a home.
The case of Sara and Hanan also demonstrates the influence of the local housing market.
This is how Sara describe their first encounter with it:
Sara: You check the prices, you go to the bank to see how much down payment you have
to make on a mortgage. First you cry, then you start to save. We saved every month, we
saved, saved, saved, whatever we could (…)
If Beershebians like Dana and Aviad were encouraged to buy their home by the belief that
“prices can only go up,” Sara and Hanan’s account conveys another sentiment in the city – the
urgency of “hurrying up” and entering the market while prices were still within their reach. This
sentiment was reflected in many interviews, with responses like “We felt like we needed to catch
the train while we could,” or “We wanted to get a foot in the door.”
Another feature of Beersheba’s middle-class housing market is its division
between poor neighbourhoods in which apartments are rented mostly to students and middle-
class family neighbourhoods where most residents live in homes they own. This distinction
expressed itself in many interviews in the city, in which interviewees contrasted “hardcore
student areas” with “pleasant family neighbourhoods”. Reflecting local housing patterns, this
distinction also played a role in structuring the transition to adulthood by making the physical
and chronological move to the next stage seems commonsensical – a natural advancement in life.
Here too, a common local experience in Beersheba ties into a common belief in Israel, namely,
that family formation calls for homeownership and rules out renting as unsuitable for family life.
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
16
Altogether, we argue that the particularities of Beersheba’s labour and housing markets
create a common local experience of entering adulthood composed of completing one’s
education, finding employment, starting a family, and buying a home. This common experience
is evident in the fact that though interviewees differed economically, the vast majority followed
the traditional pattern. Furthermore, the fact that most interviewees adopted this traditional life-
course narrative, even if it did not match their own circumstances, reflects how Beersheba’s
economic structure supports mainly the traditional pattern of entering adulthood both in practice
and in meaning.
Tel Aviv– delayed and diverse patterns
In Tel-Aviv, interviewees not only reached traditional markers of adulthood later in life with an
average age of 36, but also reached them through more diverse patterns. Only in 13 cases did
interviewees purchase their first home after getting married and/or around the time of having
their first child. Among this group, two cases were single-parent households. Another 10
households bought their first home several years after the birth of their first child, sometimes
before or after the birth of their second child. The other households reported buying their first
home with no connection to either marriage or having children. Furthermore, just like in
Beersheba, patterns of achieving homeownership could not be fully accounted for by
interviewees’ economic resources.
In a mirror image of Beersheba, the un-hegemonic status of the traditional life course in
Tel-Aviv was evident in the ambivalence expressed towards it. Interviewees rarely explicitly tied
buying a home to their marriage, and whereas in Beersheba achieving homeownership was seen
as “the next natural stage” after marriage, in Tel Aviv it was not.
Shani & Bar-Haim/ Globalization, Place and the Life Course
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Current Sociology by SAGE Publications Ltd,. All
rights reserved. It is available on: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120927742
17
For example, Oded (M, 35, travel guide) and Meirav (F, 35, psychologist), parents to two
daughters, answered the question "When did you start to talk about buying?" by saying:
Oded: (…) It was in the back of our minds for a while: "You should buy, it makes more
economic sense, bla bla bla…"
Meirav : It’s because my parents really pressured us for a long time. We resisted it for a
long time too.
Interviewer: Resisted?
Meirav: I don’t know…we felt that it’s like…
Oded: A mortgage? Now?
Meirav: It felt too much for us. Too grown-up (…)
To understand this ambivalence, we turn to the particularities of the local labour and
housing markets and their influence on our subjects’ lives. As mentioned earlier, Tel Aviv’s
labour market is characterized by precarious and shifting employment. Accordingly, finding
employment in Tel-Aviv was experienced not as a passing stage but rather as a constant reality.
For example, Smadar (F, 35), who at the time of the interview worked half-time as a producer
and half-time in her art studio, described her job history as follows:
I started working there [for a theatre] in sales, and then I built a debt-collecting system for
them (…) I can't stay in the same job for too long. The longest was two-and-half years, and
that was also three quarters-time )...(. Yes, I worked a little. I worked in production for
three months. I jumped from one thing to another. I would start studying something, and
stop…
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18
Smadar’s story might reflect a sense of a voluntary choice on her part. But the
experience of Sha’ul (M 48), a filmmaker, and Maia (F 28), a designer, express another
sentiment:
Maia : Around the time we moved in (…) Sha’ul hadn't been working for a long time, and
I was working… I mean, I had started working again [at a new job] after three months [of
maternity leave] but then the project I was employed in ended (…)
The instability described above means that, their higher wages notwithstanding,
interviewees in Tel-Aviv experience, or feared experiencing, times with little income.
Interviewees with more profitable occupations experienced less economic hardship but still were
affected by the precarious local labour market. Take for example, Yoni (M 30). Having just lost
his profitable position in high-tech and planning on launching a start-up, he talked in the
interview of his “fear of ending up in the streets that I somehow have. “ While it is highly
unlikely that people like Yoni will end up homeless, it still important to recognize this
underlying sense of insecurity which is facilitated by Tel-Aviv’s labour market.
This sense of instability and insecurity interacts with the Tel-Aviv housing market. Thus,
many interviewees, even those with substantially high incomes, preferred waiting until they had
enough savings to make a large down payment and “it was possible to take a very small
mortgage,” or until they felt they were “pushed to buy” by the needs of their growing family and
the insecurities of Tel-Aviv’s unregulated rental market. Others opted for cheaper
neighbourhoods in early stages of gentrification. In fact, almost all households that bought their
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19
first home early in their family life were either gentrifiers or did so with funds supplied by
parents.
Choosing to postpone homeownership or opting for a cheaper, gentrifying area are
choices which also reflect the particularities of Tel-Aviv’s housing market. Unlike interviewees
in Beersheba who felt encouraged to buy while prices were still affordable, a third of the cases in
Tel-Aviv reported being deterred for several years by high housing prices from purchasing a
home. Galit (F, 35, psychologist) and Or (M, 34, high-tech employee), for example, started
looking for a home after getting married but were discouraged by the city’s housing prices and
continued to rent an apartment until the birth of their second child. They describe their encounter
with the city's housing market as follows:
Galit: (…) I started dragging him around to look for apartments. At the time our budget
was more modest… We saw apartments in the range of 1.2 million shekels…
Or: I remember saying to ourselves, "Wow, 1.2 million! More than a million!"
Galit: (…) We gave ourselves passionate speeches about how prices were at their peak and
must come down. If only we knew…
As opposed to Beersheba, it was more common and expectable in Tel-Aviv to continue
renting in a middle-class neighbourhood. Middle-class households and families in Tel-Aviv rent
apartments in various locations, including well-off neighbourhoods (Author), such as the one
Galit and Or lived in before buying their home. Accordingly, the belief that “renting is not a
suitable arrangement for raising children” was less evident in Tel-Aviv, making interviewees
more at ease with their decision to delay buying their first home.
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20
The growing trend of gentrification in Tel-Aviv, which does not exist in Beersheba,
offered interviewees another option, that of buying their first home in relatively poor areas of the
city which were expected to “improve”. This option was often taken following the birth of
children. For example, Yasmin, a 31-year-old single mother, bought an apartment in a relatively
cheap and poor part of southern Tel-Aviv shortly after the birth of her first son. Although her
left-wings views, she told the interviewer, should have led her to oppose gentrification, “when it
comes to my property, I can’t wait for it to reach this area.”. Other households that bought homes
as a part of their family life in Tel-Aviv were generously assisted by parents.
Thus, even in cases where the traditional pattern was maintained chronologically, it did
not have the same transitional significance as it had in Beersheba. Gentrifiers who bought their
home because they were married and/or had children still had to wait for their new
neighbourhood to become “suitable” for their family. As for interviewees who relied solely on
their parents, the relationship between economic independence and adulthood was disrupted.
Thus, the diversity of patterns in Tel-Aviv is not so much a matter of individual
inclinations as it is of a local reality shaped by the particularities of the city’s labour and housing
market. Economic conditions in Tel-Aviv delay the achievement of markers of adulthood and
lead different households to pursue various alternative strategies, making the traditional life
course less relevant. If the common experience in Beersheba is reflected in the dominance of the
traditional life-course narrative, the common experience in Tel-Aviv results in ambivalence.
Localities and delayed adulthood, quantitative analysis
We begin our quantitative analysis with descriptive statistics of our main variables of
interest.
Table 4 presents these variables by city.
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21
Table 4: Descriptive statistics: means (standard deviation in parentheses) and percent for
key variables in the analysis, by city
Beersheba
Tel-Aviv
BA and above
(%)
27
52
Have children
(%)
58
27
Mean years
of living in
locality
35
(19.8)
26
(21.5)
Mean Income
(IS)
5,940.92
(4,209.74)
7,671.21
(5,038.62)
Homeowner
(%)
52
23
Married
(%)
61
39
N
4,389
11,301
We turn now to the set of logistic regressions depicting the effect of each locality on the
young-educated regarding marriage, having children, and owning one’s home. Figure 1 presents
the predicted margins of the interaction between city and education (BA and above).
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Figure 1
According to our analysis, the young-educated residents of Tel-Aviv are less likely to
own homes and have children then both the young-uneducated residents of the city, and the
young-educated residents of Beersheba. Within Beersheba the differences between the educated
and non-educated were smaller and less significant both in regard to having children, where
results barely reached statistical significance (p<0.6), and in regard to homeownership, where
results were not significant. Regarding marriage, the young-educated in Beersheba are more
likely to be married then the uneducated in the city, while in Tel-Aviv the differences between
the two groups were not significant
4
.
4
This can be explained by the fact that while cohabitation is more common among tertiary-educated individuals, it is
still not regarded as a lifelong alternative to marriage in Israel (Baloush-Kleinman and Sharlin, 2004).
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23
Our statistical analysis, therefore, supports our qualitative findings and main argument.
As in our qualitative analysis, the young-educated residents of Tel-Aviv are the least likely to
achieve most traditional markers of adulthood, even when controlling for income and years lived
in each locality. Hence, our quantitative analysis demonstrates our argument that localities play a
role in shaping life-course transitions and accordingly, that the relationship between class and
life-course is also mediated by place. As we have shown, not only that young-educated
population is differentiated by locality, but also within each city, the differences between the
young-educated and un-educated took on a specific pattern.
Summary and Discussion
In this paper we explored patterns of entering adulthood among middle-class households in two
Israeli cities, focusing on the timing and meaning of homeownership. As we have shown in our
qualitative analysis, the prevalence of the traditional pattern of entering adulthood in Beersheba
and its disruption in Tel-Aviv were greatly shaped by local employment patterns and housing
markets.
In Beersheba, the relative scarcity of jobs and stable forms of employment reinforced the
sequential pattern of entering adulthood and encouraged interviewees to buy a home early in
their lives and careers. This pattern was also strengthened by rising but still affordable housing
prices, along with a homogenous housing market for the middle class. In Tel-Aviv, low job
stability and high housing prices have delayed home purchase for many households for a long
period, and a developed rental market has made living as a family in a rented apartment more
socially acceptable. In other instances, the existence of gentrification has allowed households to
afford less expensive housing with the expectation of social and physical “improvements” in the
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24
neighbourhood. In most cases, the chronological and narrative relationship between employment,
family formation, and buying a home was disrupted by local economic conditions in Tel-Aviv.
Our qualitative analysis gives further support to our argument concerning the influence of
local conditions on patterns of entering adulthood. The results show that middle-class residents
(as identified by higher education) in Beersheba achieve all traditional markers of adulthood at
an earlier stage. Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate the statically significant effect on
entering adulthood of living in each city by controlling for education, income and years lived in
each locality.
Our analysis is of course not without its limitations. First, we should acknowledge that it
is possible that our findings reflect the particularities of Israel, such as the low rate of commuting
between metropolitan areas discussed earlier. Thus, the matter of locality effect in the transition
to adulthood might be influenced by national context, an issue which deserves further
investigation. Secondly, we should also note that there are still additional local factors that may
play a role in shaping life-course transitions, such as local narratives, social networks, and the
design of urban space (for the latter see: Author). However, given the centrality of employment
patterns and housing prices in our qualitative data and in the current literature, we argue that
local economies are a key mechanism through which places play a role in shaping the transition
to adulthood.
Our findings expand the common view of the relationship between globalization and
patterns of entering adulthood (Buchmann and Kriesi, 2011; Fussell et al., 2007; Golsch, 2003;
Hillmert, 2005; Mills and Blossfeld, 2006) as mediated by the national to local urban level. In
the same fashion that globalization has translated into national variants of capitalism and welfare
regimes (Chauvel and Bar-Haim, 2016; Esping-Andersen, 1990), it also has intensified regional
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25
socio-economic and cultural differentiation within countries (Sassen, 2006; Storper, 1995;
Whitford and Potter, 2007). Thus, we add to the current literature by demonstrating the
importance of integrating regional and local units of analysis and their effect on young adults’
transition to adulthood.
Our findings also call for the re-examination of class as a unit of analysis. While many
studies have focused on inter-class variations in the entrance into adulthood, our paper
demonstrates the existence of intra-class differences. More specifically, our analysis shows that
the educated middle class is differentiated by locality. This finding is in line with a proliferating
literature on the differentiation of the contemporary middle classes and the importance of place
for middle-class identities (Andreotti et al., 2014; Bacqué et al., 2015; Butler, 1997, 1997;
Florida, 2003; Hanquinet et al., 2012; Katz-Gerro, 2009; Savage et al., 2005; Zukin, 2009).
However, the current literature views the relationship between place of residence and class
identity as one where the former is the effect of the latter (but see: Benson and Jackson, 2017 ;
Cutts and Widdop, 2016 ). Our findings stress instead the constitutive role of place in shaping
variation in middle-class young adults’ lives and biographical narratives. We thus suggest that
future studies might examine whether class identity is becoming a locally mediated category.
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