Introduction

‘Transition’ has become a key word in contemporary thinking about the series of complex changes taking place in the post-socialist world. While theorists and policy-makers are still debating the questions concerning the depth and future direction of these changes, it is clear by now that a turbulent period of transformation has involved almost everybody within these countries from leading businessmen, politicians, entrepreneurs, and bureaucrats to small shopkeepers, farmers, housewives. Although a ‘quantum jump’ has not yet happened and there are still numerous strains and stresses, it is unlikely that East European people will turn back to their communist past. Emerging market mechanisms increasingly pervade the economy and society, and it is time to carefully consider how economic actors and social groups not just adapt to a new economic environment, but also struggle to form the new rules of the game.