Sociology and Post-Communist Transformations: The Uniqueness of the Albanian Case in the East-European Context

This chapter analyses the features of the Albanian post-Communist transition, compared with those of Central and Eastern European Countries and other types of transitions. As a period of passing from a centralised social system, in which the state was the only owner (of the means of production) and the only employer, toward democracy and a market economy, the post-communist transition was a period of the birth of the social problems. In Albania, quite differently from the other East European countries, the system was not reformed gradually, the transformations were not accepted; the change was rapid and not directed. The intensity of social problems results from the shock of rapid change. Albanian society was not immune to social problems; it did not have the instruments (political, social, legal, organizational, etc.) to face their ‘cyclone’. In the wave of post-communist transformation, Albanian sociology was born and rose, simultaneously with the birth and growth of social problems, with a mission: understanding comparatively the Albanian transformations, studying and analysing the new social problems, answering the different questions of Albanian society, as well as helping the reformation and development of the society.