Co-organised by the International Cultural Centre of Cracow and the City of Cracow, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Poland, the conference debated the role and practice of culture in central and eastern Europe, twenty years after the fall of communism. The event is the first of a series of CultureWatchEurope (CWE) conferences.

See the programme and the conclusions of the event. For further details, consult the web sites of the Council of Europe (including the same conclusions) or the Cracow centre.

The Budapest Observatory contributed with a background paper. The title of the paper is identical with the conference. Its main part is a detailed descriptive analysis of culture and development twenty years after the fall of communism in Europe in 161 statements, featuring a cross-section analysis from 22 angles (or 22 sections), each broken down into a number of positive and negative statements. Although one of the main specifics of the eastern half of the continent is its large internal diversity - as opposed to the relative homogenity in the west - the aim was to arrive at assertions valid and characteristic of the 24-25 post-communist countries. We believe, on the other hand, that several, if not the majority of the 73 strengths and 88 weaknesses in our analysis apply also to a number of places in the whole of Europe. 

An anthology of 26 statistical graphs accompanies the analysis, highlighting specifics of culture in east and central Europe.