This volume employs a geographical perspective to investigate the nature of the transition from state socialism to capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe, and its implications for the quality of the environment. The text focuses on four areas of investigation: economic transition from centrally planned to a market economy in coal mining and the petrochemical industry; political transition from the one party system to a democratic society and its implications for the local government system; effects of economic and political transitions on the quality of the environment and local environmental management; and popular attitudes of most district citizens toward democratization, economic change and the environment.