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This book was born in the framework of an international comparative research collaboration, which launched the LOSS project nearly two decades ago from the Catholic University of Ingolstadt (Bavaria) and the University of Louisville (Kentucky). When the Local Organization of Social Services Project was established it had a main aim to build a bridge among different social cultures and social politics which exist in the United States of America, Western Europe and the countries of the democratizing Eastern Europe. The main purpose of the editors was not to show the current Hungarian social and socio-political situation, which situation is transforming, it was rather to give an inspiration to other research teams who create similar monographs about the LOSS in their own countries. This book seemingly does not follow strict editorial rules, although there is an invisible logical line, which runs through and concatenates all the chapters.The intent of the authors,who are each researchers of the subject of the chapters, was to try to synthesize the social phenomena of the near past and some chapters give wider historical perspectives, as well. Essentially, this book is a part of a puzzle, which was deciphered in a way in a post-socialist country but it isnot excluded that there will be other results after the collaboration among the semi-peripheral Northern and Eastern European countries in the next years.

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