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.
