This volume deals with different aspects of informal structures and practices in Eastern Europe. Its objectives are twofold. It aims at discovering whether or to what extent informal structures and practices in Eastern Europe have meanings, functions, forms and effects different from those that can be observed in the politics and societies of Western Europe. The authors of this volume most of them are from the region have been invited to discuss the scientific relevance of the distinction informal / formal in their respective field of research or discipline. This points to the second...