This volume is devoted to post-communist Central Europe and is divided into three parts. The first part covers some general issues of social theory and politics, ranging from the chances for social-liberalism under post-communism, through a new dichotomy of the transforming societies, to the birth of neo-socialism in the region. The chapters in the second and third parts examine economic policies and regulation schemes from the perspective of social change. In the second part, four papers are devoted to new inequalities, a burning problem of social thought in East Central Europe. The third part includes four independent case studies of vocational training, long-term unemployment, local welfare policy and health insurance with a view to providing first-hand information on the daily workings of the new social systems.