Eastern European intellectuals who received international recognition.The crisis of sociology, the very nature of social science, the East/West divide and coloniality, and the appearance and increasing appeal of new disciplines (gender studies, postcolonial studies, anthropology, etc.) are viewed differently by the three scholars, but they share a common concern for public sociology.Sociology cannot be practised from the ivory tower -and part of the Eastern European specificity is the rapidly changing social terrain, one that is often prone to radical ideologies and neo-nationalism.We have discussed at length that the region has been marginalized in the Western academy.Recent developments (the ongoing war in the Ukraine, the establishment of autocratic governments, and the strengthening of radical right-wing populism 1 in the region) anticipate a renewed interest, however -an interest that is won at a very high price.There is an increasing need for self-reflexive, critical social scientists who can act as interpreters between the East and West.While sociologists such as Zsuzsa Ferge, Elemér Hankiss, Júlia Szalai, Miklós Hadas and Iván Szelényi provide an example of how it has been possible to assume this role, the papers written by a younger generation of critical sociologists suggest that there is hope for the continuation of this tradition.