Preface.

This article presents information on the papers published in the February 1, 1997 issue of the "Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology." Several of the papers published here were initially presented at the East-West Meeting of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology held in Prague in 1995. When the Association last met in that city, it was in less than happy circumstances. A meeting planned prior to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 went ahead, but in a much curtailed form. After the collapse of the Soviet empire the agenda changed, with social psychologists from both sides of the former divide within Europe attempting to develop a social-psychological perspective on the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Various teams of researchers presented their initial findings at the Prague meeting.