From the Editors
After the European Union great enlargement on May 1, 2004 and the
following accession of Bulgaria and Romania, the number of the European
population covered by various EU policies including the Common Agricultural
Policy increased in a significant way. It resulted in two major processes forming
the starting point of considerations encapsulated in the presented volume. The
first one has been focused on the structure of European societies that underwent
major transformations and consequently diversification of the social positions,
types of the political involvement in public life as well as increasing diversities
in value systems. At the same time the role of the rural population as a potential
political force influencing EU social and political life has also increased.
Simultaneously one of the priority objectives of the if we might put it in this
way EU development project has been focused on the protection of natural as
well as cultural resources located mainly in rural areas. Therefore the current LIX
volume of the Sociological Review has been devoted to the problems of rural
areas of contemporary Europe in order to show the complexity and the richness
of the issues mentioned above.