INTRODUCTION. TRANSITION INTO RETIREMENT IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

This issue of “Contributions to Humanities” presents various aspects of transitions to retirement in Europe, particularly in post-communist countries. The process of retirementis analysed from various points of view; to name afew: the political perspective and the challengesfaced by current public pension systems in ageing societies, the macro perspectivewhich analyses the structural reasons for (early) retirement, and the micro perspective ofindividuals and their ways of experiencing and dealing with exit from the labour market.Therefore, for this issue we sought out an array of papers that extensively discuss the problemof retirement, and inevitably the problem of aging, in Eastern and Central Europe. Obviously,this publication examines only afraction of this broad problem and is by no means exhaustive,thus we hope that it will serve to stimulatethe further discussion.