ABSTRACT
In Eastern Europe the dust from the political rallies settled fast. The technological globalization is manifest in the deepening worldwide technological division of labor and in the rapidly progressing unification of technological standards. In the field of economic globalization the global financial markets have expanded much faster than the markets for goods and services. The social sciences could offer promising insights into the causes and reasons for the new deficits in transparency and for the pathological developments. The critique on 'methodological nationalism' has good reasons, but contemporary social reality is still very much structured along the lines of nation states. Given the large variety of national, regional and global historical circumstances, one should notice both the theoretical strength and the limitations of the concept of societal transformation. The major reason for the changes was the recognition of permanent and increasing deficiencies in the social and economic organization of Eastern European societies.
