The end of socialism posed a historical challenge to European societies. The former socialist Central and East European countries were faced with what has been called a "triple transformation": Mutually dependent changes in the political, economic, and social spheres. At the same time, the old EU member states had to develop strategies to react to these developments and integrate former socialist societies.This post-socialist transformation of Europe coincided with a number of broader trends in the political, economic, and social spheres which are often collectively referred to as globalisation. Success or failure to adapt to these changes creates winners and losers. The focus of this edited volume is on various groups of "losers" and the challenges they face as a result of their marginalisation.This book presents the results of the Changing Europe Summer School on "Justice as a societal and political matter. Equality, social and legal security as conditions for democracy and the market" that took place in Berlin in July 2006.
The Summer School brought together more than 30 young scholars from all over the world who work on issues related to Central and Eastern European societies and the enlarged EU.