Beschreibung
Since 1989, the theme of the onset, the course and future of
the change in post- socialist countries of Central and
Eastern Europe, was interlinked with the dismantling of the
old authoritarian regime and introduction of the new
democratic one. It has been at the centre of attention of
politicians, media and the public at large, and it has
entered the field of interest of the social sciences as
well. For ethnologists and anthropologists this theme
represents a unique historical experience and it creates the
opportunity to observe the key processes of changes in
specific conditions of the “living laboratory” of a
current social reality.
The collection of papers published in this issue has similar
objectives. It brings empirical, mostly case studies, of
cultural and socio-economic changes in rural and urban
communities in Central and Eastern Europe, namely in the
Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine. Individual
contributions explore the ongoing process of social,
economic and cultural transformation in post-socialist
societies and its impact at the local and regional
micro-level.
