This book is about change in Central and Eastern Europe, and how we think about social and economic change, more generally. In contrast to the dominant 'transition framework' that examines organizational forms in Eastern Europe according to the degree to which they conform to, or depart from, the blueprints of already existing capitalisms, this book examines the innovative character, born of necessity, in which actors in the post-socialist setting are restructuring organizations and institutions by redefining and recombining resources. Instead of conceiving these recombination as accidental aberrations, it explores their evolutionary potentials. The starting premise of Restructuring Networks is that the actual unit of entrepreneurship is not the isolated individual personality but the social networks that links firms and the actors within them. Drawing insight from evolutionary economics and from the new methods of network analysis, leading sociologists economists and political scientists present their findings from Hungary, Poland, Eastern Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic.

There is a wealth of information in this book. * South Magazine *
Each of the papers is valuable as a specific study in its own right, but what ties them together is a more or less central emphasis on networks. * Work, Employment and Society *
This volume is a milstone in the market transition literature. This book is a major contribution to the debate on postcommunist economic transition, but it should be read by anyone interested in economic sociology. - Akos Rona-Tas. American Journal of Sociology. July 1998.
...refreshing...an important contribution...the strength of the volume is the important contribution it at times makes to how we might begin to rethink post-socialism. - Adrian Smith University of Sussex.
This volume is a significant contribution to the flow of literature on postsocialist transformation......The volume suceeds in its ambition of presenting an innovative theoretical discussion and in increasing the understanding of post-socialism development, and the editorial framework establishes an initial basis for comparitive assessment.... essential reading for all those interesteds
Any scholar intersted in the on-going transformation in CEE should not miss this intellectually stimulating book. - Petr Pavlinek. - European Urban and Regional Studies.
The book is an important contribution to the fast-growing field of transitional studies. It features some of the most exciting theoretical thinking currently employed in economics, sociology and political science. - Dmitri n. Shalin. - Social Forces - June 1998