“Civil society is dead; hurrah for civil society!” – so proclaims the opening line of this admirable collection from a well-respected collective of European editors. The statement is designed to highlight an apparent paradox: that while there are indications that civil society in Europe and perhaps beyond is in retreat as “[t]raditional forms of. . . social organization have gradually declined” (p. 1) driven by individualisation and changing life patterns, there is a striking consistency in states’ search for solutions that emanate from civil society. At the same time states are looking to foster new relationships, for new ways of partnering with, or perhaps co-opting civil society: co-production, citizen engagement and behaviour change being some of the latest buzzwords. Thus Governments have been looking to revitalize or reinvent civil society in order to meet complex social challenges. This, the authors contend, amounts to an overarching public policy ambition to manufacture a renewed civil society.

These substantive concerns of the book are underpinned by a number of key theoretical insights, which are worth outlining here. The first is a shift that the editors admirably locate as part of the long-range ebb and flow in the relationship (and respective definitions) of states and civil society, essentially in its most recent guise as the move from centralism (or ‘old’ public administration) to pluralism. The second, perhaps more contentiously, and certainly more abstractly, is the liquefaction of social life – the dissolution of stable social structures as theorised by Beck, Giddens and Bauman. The point of this book, they say, is that these two trends have combined in a specific way to create “a new dynamic in government-civil society relations that is specific to our time” (p. 3).

Are the claims made by the editors supported by the individual contributions to the book? Although it is not made explicit how the book came about – in fact the grouping of authors emerged from a long-standing group of scholars meeting at EGPA – certainly, one apparent strength of the book is that at first glance the book appears to offer a geographically wide-ranging take on these themes. In fact, though, the chapters actually draw on experience in the Netherlands, Belgium, England, a selection of central European countries, Germany, Italy and Singapore. More importantly perhaps, the chapters generally cover two main themes. The first (notably Harlock, Pop and Radu, Beller and Hass, Franzoni, De Corte and Verschuere, Poocharoen and Abdullah) is most concerned with the governance challenges arising from the changed relationship between government and third sector. The new public governance approach seems to be characterized by tensions around the state's steering role, particularly in relation to accountability versus the third sector's anxiety to maintain a degree of autonomy and independence. These concerns certainly seem to occur across the different geographical contexts.

The second theme is a concern with a deeper and more far-reaching transformation associated with the turn to governance and the spectre of a new form of statecraft associated with cooperating with a wider range of societal actors to achieve policy goals (in this case Peeters, Shand and Higman, Waardenburg and van de Bovenkamp, Boutellier). Here is presented and discussed a vision of an active and far-reaching state, attempting to shape and constitute the active and ‘participating citizen’, rather than a state that is merely ‘hollowed out’ or residual.

The chapters are bookended by two more theoretically challenging contributions. Peeters’ discussion explores how the alliance between government and citizens in the Netherlands is central to a governing project that suggests in-depth state interventions, tighter state and society regulation of behaviour and citizen responsibility, which suggests a strengthening rather than weakening state. Also reflecting on the Dutch experience, Boutellier interrogates a notion that has clearly had widespread uptake in Europe: that active and participating are a panacea for a wide range of social problems. In common with Peeters he sees this as an attempt to manufacture a new social order appropriate to the ‘network society’. He explores these themes from the perspective of counter-democracy and through an examination of discourses on security and the integration of immigrants in the Netherlands.

This book will be of considerable interest to all those studying civil society, the growing, and often controversial role of the third sector in public services and the wider contribution of civil society to the public realm as a site for associational life, democratic participation and the creation of civility. It adds significantly to the literature on state-civil society relationships in Europe in particular, and makes some strong conceptual advances. If there is a shortcoming it is that the individual chapters don't go as far as one might hope in detailing the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of how civil society is being ‘manufactured’. Could it be, for example, that depending on where one looks, civil society is resisting or reshaping processes of state-led manufacture? It is a shame, therefore that the editors don't provide a summary chapter, reflecting on the extent to which the book's central claims have been met.