TRANSFORMATION OF THE RESEARCH SYSTEMS OF POSTCOMMUNIST CENTRAL AND EASTERN-EUROPE - AN INTRODUCTION

The radical transformations in the former communist countries of Centr al and Eastern Europe (C&EE) have prompted a growing body of scholarsh ip concerned to analyze both the dramatic decline and the de facto res tructuring of research systems throughout the region, and future oppor tunities for rebuilding them. This paper provides some basic backgroun d information on how science and technology (S&T) were organized befor e the transformations, and the changes since. It then briefly indicate s why the topic is important for the field of science and technology s tudies (S&TS), and describes some trends in the development of S&TS in and on C&EE, before introducing the individual contributions in this Special Issue.