Looking Back: The Year 1989 As a Cultural And Civilizational Break

Post-communist transition in Eastern and Central European societies is analysed here in order to direct the focus of sociology to the basic dualities of the new social processes emerging in the transformation period. So far, the contradiction between the emergence of political democracy and the introduction and expansion of the economic market has been the most frequent subject of analysis. A further relevant perspective -the focus of this article -differentiates between those processes occurring at the level of institutions and organisations and those occurring at the cultural and civilisational levels. The reconstruction of the political and economic system cannot consist solely in the rapid imitation and implementation of Western institutions. To operate successfully within the new institutions and organisations people require new fundamental cultural resources which create their "civilisational competence" in the area of polity and economy. Thus, the revolutions started in 1989 will not have been completed until the formation of socially constructed cultural foundations is finished. This is the task of future generations.