The book consists of papers of eminent sociologists and political scientists on transition to democracy in East European countries such as Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, ex-Yugoslavia and Romania. The topics include collaboration, resistance, peasantry, intellectuals, tradition, nationalism, communist parties, Central Europe and dissidents.

The volume brings together a selection of analyses related to the issues of gender and social transition published in the quarterly in the years 1994 to 2006. Articles cover many East Central European countries and apply the lens of gender to politics, law, history, culture and economy.