This interdisciplinary volume focuses on the dynamic interaction of ethnic and national identities in contemporary East and Central Europe. East European and Western contributors - many of them local activists concerned with safeguarding minority rights in their countries - provide a wide range of insights into the current situation of minorities in Poland, Moldova, Bulgaria, Macedonia, the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Slovakia, and Austria.

They examine how particular social and cultural characteristics bring about different perceptions of and reactions to minorities, often leading to the strengthening of particular identities.