Dr. Roni Holler
Disability policy; Disability studies; Social policy in Israel and in comparative perspective; History of the welfare state
Current research projects:
Guardianship and Supported Decision Making for Persons with Disabilities: A Mixed Method Analysis of Social Workers' Decision-Making Process (CO-PI with Dr. Shirli Werner, ISF Grant number 268/18).
In recent years, several welfare states, including Israel, have amended their guardianship laws. The proper implementations of these laws, including the decision whether to appoint a guardian or the less restrictive alternative of supported decision maker, is greatly influenced by social workers. In our research project we seek to contribute to a better understanding of social workers’ decisions about guardianship and supported decision making. Attention will be paid to understanding the contribution of individual level, social workers’ level, and societal-legal level factors to this process.
Active Take Up in Social Security (CO-PI With Prof. Mimi Ajzenstadt, Dr. Avishai Benish & Prof. John, National Insurance Institute Grant)
One of the limitations of social security programmes is the problem of non-take-up, by which people who are entitled to receive benefits do not receive them. Despite a growing political and academic interests in understanding and tackling this issue, hitherto little is known about the barriers for participation in social benefits and the effective policy tools to overcome these barriers. The aim of this project is to address this theoretical and empirical gap, by mapping a) the barriers facing social security beneficiaries in taking up their rights b) the interventions put forward by various actors in order to help citizens to take up their rights. Moreover, assuming non-take-up to be a multi-dimensional in nature, our analysis focuses on various levels of barriers and interventions, including social, legal, bureaucratic and organizational.
Understanding Role Perception of Family, Professional and Volunteer Supporters in Supported Decision Making Scheme (CO-PI With Dr. Itay Greenspan and Prof. Shirli Werner, Warburg Fund)
In the Israeli context, the criticism towards guardianship led to the 2016 amendment of the Legal Capacity and Guardianship Law and to the development of a less restrictive alternative known as supported decision making. Since supported decision making is a relatively new policy tool, we know little about its actual implementation, including the way supporters perceive their role. In order to fill this gap, our goal in this study is to examine the role perceptions of Israeli supporters under the new reform, as well as their motivation for becoming supporters.
Publications:
Articles in Refereed Journals
Holler, R., & Gal, J. (2011). Subsidies for early childhood education and care: The
Israeli model in a cross-national comparative perspective. Social Security, 87,
37-63 (Hebrew) [Link].
Holler, R. (2014). Disability and employment policy in the Israeli welfare state:
Between exclusion and inclusion. Disability & Society, 29, 1369-1382 [Link]
[SSRN].
Holler, R. (2014). People with disabilities and the Israeli welfare state: The case of
relief work. Social Security, 95, 39-76 (Hebrew) [Link].
Gal, J. & Holler, R. (2014). The development of social policy research in Israel, Israel
Affairs, 20, 452-469 [Link] [SSRN].
Holler, R. (2017). Disabling ideas – disabling policies: The case of disability
employment policy in the newly established Israeli state. Social Policy &
Administration, 51, 424-441[Link] [SSRN].
Holler, R. & Werner, S. (2018). Perceptions toward Disability among Social Work
Students in Israel: Development and Validation of a New Scale. Health &
Social Care in the Community, 26(3), 423-432 [Link].
Holler, R. (2018). “Rebuilding a shattered life and a broken body”: Social work and
disability discourses in Israel’s first decades. British Journal of Social
Holler, R (2018). Disability studies: Challenges and Issues. Theory and Criticism, 50,
475-492. (Hebrew).]Link]
Holler, R. (2019). “Rebuilding a shattered life and a broken body”: Social work and
disability discourses in Israel’s first decades. British Journal of Social Work,
Holler, R. (2019). The role of the welfare state in supporting economic transitions
following family bereavement: Comparing Britain and Israel. Social Policy &
Administration, 53, 128-141. [Link]
Werner, S. & Holler, R. (2020). Attitudes toward guardianship and their association with the importance of social work goals and perspectives of disability within
the social work profession. Disability and Rehabilitation, 42, 712-721. [Link]
Holler, R. (2020). Material, Stigmatic and Agentic Dimensions in the Experience of Claiming Disability Benefits: The Israeli Case. Social Policy & Administration. [Link]
Holler, R. Shemla, I.& Maeir, A. (Accepted for publication). The disability orientation of occupational therapists in physical rehabilitation settings: tension between medical and social models in theory and practice. American Journal of Occupational Therapy
Edited Books
Gal, J. & Holler, R. (Eds.) (2019). ““Justice Instead of Charity”: Chapters in the Development of Social Work in Israel. Beer-Sheva: The Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel & Zionism, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Hebrew) [Link].
Book Chapters
Holler, R. & Gal, J.(2019). History of social work in Israel: An introduction. In J. Gal & R. Holler (Eds.). “Justice Instead of Charity”: Chapters in the Development of Social Work in Israel. Beer-Sheva: The Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel & Zionism, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Hebrew).
Holler, R. )2019). Between the personal and the social: Social work and people with disabilities in Israel’s first decades. In J. Gal & R. Holler (Eds.). “Justice Instead of Charity”: Chapters in the Development of Social Work in Israel. Beer-Sheva: The Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel & Zionism, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Hebrew).
Holler, R. & Werner, S.,Tolub, Y. & Pumeranz, M. (2020). Choice and people with intellectual disability: The Israeli case. In R. J. Stancliffe, M. L. Wehmeyer, K. A. Shogren & B. H. Abery (Eds.). Choice, Preference and Disability: Promoting Self-Determination Across the Lifespan (pp. 87-110). Switzerland: Springer.
