Abstract
During the last two decades, rural areas in Central Europe have gone through original transformations in the history of European rural societies. The first part of the paper will present two different theses explaining the changes of rurality. The second part analyzes the diversity of the demographic structures and identifies the diverse forms of economic activities. The third part, finally, will draw a broad outline of the reshaping of rural areas according to the modes of socio-economic integration. The paper gives an assessment of the transformation processes of rural spaces in Central Europe (Eastern Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Czech republic).