Research Areas  

 Planning, including Collaborative Processes and Community Capacity Building; Environmental and Public Policy; Negotiation Theory and Practice; Policies under Extreme Conditions

Planning paradigms: A project involving interviews with sixty Israeli planners and community builders became the basis for a SUNY Press book in which a number of  these  profiles  were presented and analyzed for the light they shed on planning as a profession. This led to:

• Exploration of collaborative planning efforts;

• Implications of and barriers to collaborative decision-making; 

• Development of evaluation frameworks.

Sample projects rooted in the collaborative pardaigm paradigm include:

•  A project for the Regional Council of Abu Basma (for the then newly recognized Bedouin villages in the Negev) involved working with the residents to identify possible future municipal/administrative frameworks.

• A project for the Jewish  National  Fund  (JNF)  involved  developing  a  collaborative  process with the residents and local officials of Migdal HaEmek to shape a vision for the  community  forest which adjoins the town.

• Living Together in a Diverse Campus is a new endeavor funded by the Tauber Foundation  through the University of Haifa’s Jewish – Arab Center. The goal is to initiate an on-going, deliberative process within the University that deals with the challenges of a multi-cultural (Jewish and Arab) environment in constructive and informed ways, and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain methods for cross-cultural, on-campus deliberations and inclusion activities.

• Akko: areas of conflict and trust in a mixed city is funded by the University of  Haifa’s  Jewish – Arab Center, and maps these areas with resident participation.

Sample projects which include additional planning paradigms:

•  The Separation Fence – Barriers, Impacts and Narratives funded  by  the  Florsheimer Institute, which mapped attitudes, positions and relations among Israeli Jewish and Arab citizens living in communities adjacent to the separation fence.

• A project for the Planning Administration in the Ministry of Interior, involving a  comparative  study of international planning systems and  lessons  for  Israel.  This  is  as  research background for stage two of a major Planning Reform which the Planning Administration is initiating. I am in charge of the US case study –  Maryland. Field work was  undertaken in February 2014, and the research team is now writing up the  comparison  report  (US,  UK, Holland and Ontario) and lessons applicable to Israel.

• Land Allocation Policy in Israel during the  Formative  Years  is  ongoing  research  which received partial funding from the Land Policy and Land Use Institute of  the  Jewish National  Fund in July 2014.

Environmental and Public Policy: The framework guiding much of my work within the environmental area is sustainable development and its implications for planning. For example,

• Research on transboundary water resources dealing with international water quality, law, negotiation and institutionalization issues;

• A research endeavor funded by the Israeli Ministry of Environment (1999 - 2004) entailed documentation and systematic analysis of the dynamics that  cause  many  Israeli environmental disputes to be protracted. The approach consisted of  analyzing  how  the framing of disputes contributes to their perpetuation, and exploring  how  this  knowledge might contribute to constructive interventions.

• The European Union project "Science and Policy Integration for Coastal Systems Assessment (SPICOSA 2007-2011).” My contribution is as part of the task force dealing with stakeholder policy mapping to identify issues/concerns to be raised in coastal zone management policy scenarios.

• Jerusalem Institute project “Institutional determinants of Innovation in Environmental Policy  and Implementation”, completed 2012, which identified  and  analyzed  institutional determinants of environmental innovation or transformation in planning policy and implementation.

• An interdisciplinary research dialogue group on Environment, Justice and History at  the  Van  Leer Institute in Jerusalem 2011.

Negotiation Theory and Practice:

•  Study of policy transfer  of  alternative  dispute  management  methodologies,  with  an emphasis on cultural adaptation to the Israeli environmental and public arenas, focusing on community and institutional capacity building;

• An  activity related to  the  protraction of  environmental disputes above was  participation in    an international network of experts (funded by the  Hewlett Foundation), working for  three  years on building an intractable disputes knowledge base (http:/www.beyondintractability). Participation in an international  group  researching  development  of  “Second  Generation” global negotiation education. The group is examining critically both what  is  taught  in negotiation and how we teach it, with special emphasis on how best to “translate” teaching methodology to succeed with diverse, global audiences. This  is  a  three-year  initiative sponsored by Hamline University School of Law,  in  cooperation  the  JAMS  Foundation,  and ADR Center Italy.

• A project examining Spatial Transgression in Israel: the case of new  religious sites was  funded by the  Israel Science Foundation and  adapted the  framing methodology developed  for environmental contexts to conflicts over the development of religious sites.

Policies under Extreme Conditions: In 2012, under the Minerva call of research under extreme conditions, we were awarded the:

Minerva Center for the Rule of Law and Extreme Conditions; PIs: Prof. Eli Salzberger, Prof. Amnon Reichman, Prof. Gad Barzilai (Faculty of Law), Prof. Deborah Shmueli (Department of Geography and Environmental Studies; German partners: Prof. Heiner Trute, Prof. Stefan Voigt, Prof. Stefan Oeter and Prof. Florian Jessberger ( initial phase: 2013-2019). The Minerva Center has been extended until 2027. The PIs are currently: Prof. Eli Salzberger, Prof. Amnon Reichman, Prof. Itamar Mann, Prof. Sandy Kedar (Faculty of Law), Prof. Deborah Shmueli (School of Environmental Sciences); German partners: Prof. Stefan Voigt, Prof. Stefan Oeter, Prof. Anne van Aaken, and Prof. Florian Jessberger https://minervaxtremelaw.haifa.ac.il/

The Minerva Center for the Rule of Law and Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa is an international venue and transnational forum for study,  research,  training,  education  and publication. Our mission is focused on the rule of law, broadly defined, under primarily (but not necessarily exclusively) three main types of extreme conditions, whether real and/or perceived,  formal and/or informal: national security challenges (wars, terrorism,  counter  terrorism,  and military action); socioeconomic crises (economic meltdown  and  severe  sociopolitical fragmentation); and natural disasters (epidemics, floods, storms, fires, earthquakes).

This has opened a new set of research themes. The establishment of this exciting endeavor has entailed recruiting young and post-doctoral researchers,  graduate  students  and  research assistants, and designing the overall research foci and framework.  Within  the  context  of  the Center we proposed and were awarded three large projects from the Ministry of Science  and Technology:

• Evaluating Israel’s Regulatory Framework for Earthquake Preparedness, Response and Recovery, including Public Engagement Mechanisms

• Tools and Mechanisms for Public Engagement in Local Authorities with regard to Earthquake Preparedness, Response and Recovery

• Law, Cyber and Extreme Conditions

In December 2017, 85 researchers from the University of Haifa (Center hub), Technion and Hebrew University as core institutions, together with researchers from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Rambam Hospital, Tel Hai College, and the Israel School for Humanitarian Aid; with partners from the municipality of Haifa and NATAN International Humanitarian Aid, were awarded The National Knowledge and Research Center for Emergency Readiness (2017-present). The funding agencies are the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Emergency Management Authority, the Ministry of Welfare. I am Head of Center.

Numerous research projects have been undertaken through the Center – see https://muchanut.haifa.ac.il/index.php/en/home

Among others, we are currently working on:

•  Impacts on Wellbeing from COVID

•  Impacts on Wellbeing from the Aftermath of October 7, 2024 and the Ensuing War