ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the tensions and conflicts within the broadly understood civil society sphere through the perspective of social mobilization and the function of the civil society. It shows the dynamics of the changes within the sector and compares it with other forms of civic engagement such as grassroots social mobilizations. The chapter deals with few myths about the civil society in post-communist Central Europe that shape the academic and the popular thinking about civil society sector in the region. Most of the organizational models and ways of dealing with the issues came from abroad after 1989, when the possibilities for being active opened up. Foreign origins were occasionally also the problem, because of different patterns of activism and differences in the environment in which they were active. The evolution and the development of civil society in Central Europe have generated few myths that bias the outlook and the understanding of the concept.
