The idea for this issue emerged in Budapest during a two-day workshop on social movements in Central and Eastern Europe. The ideas behind this workshop (and thus this issue) was to discuss the specificity of civil mobilizations in the region and to contribute to academic debates ongoing since the transformation of 1989. Is there a regional specificity of social activism? Is, and if yes, how social activism is different from other parts of the world? Does this imply different theoretical and analytical approach? Other questions, closely linked to these are, how Eastern Europe is defined, characterized and constructed? How the eastern European context and environment affect social movements and mobilizations in the region? The main goal of this article is to present the main discussions among social movement academics and practitioners in the region and to deconstruct some of the clichés about grassroots activism in Eastern Europe that arose over the years.