Regulatory Transformations. Rethinking Economy – Society Interactions. By Bettina Lange, Fiona Haines and Dania Thomas (eds.). Oñati International Series in Law and Society, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2015. 272 pp. £60.00 hardcover.

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12270
• Date: 01 June 2017
• Published date: 01 June 2017

Book Reviews

Jennifer Balint, Editor

Regulatory Transformations. Rethinking Economy – Society

Interactions. By Bettina Lange, Fiona Haines and Dania Thomas

(eds.). O~

nati International Series in Law and Society, Oxford:

Hart Publishing, 2015. 272 pp. £60.00 hardcover.

Reviewed by Bronwen Morgan, Faculty of Law, The University of

New South Wales, UNSW Sydney

This edited volume explores the rise of regulatory initiatives that

are catalyzed by citizens in association with business, often in trans-

national contexts that cross multiple levels of governance and that

work in ways that confound traditional distinctions between state

and market. The volume characterizes this as “the rise of a social

sphere that regulates at the interstices of states and markets” (p. 3).

The key concern that threads the collection is an exploration of

“how social norms, practices, actorsand institutions frame economic

transactions, and thereby regulate economic and social risks gener-

ated by and for business, states and citizens” (p. 4). The sub-title of

the book—“rethinking economy-society interactions”—alludes to

the extended engagement undertaken by the book with the recent

revival of scholarly interest in Karl Polanyi’s work on these interac-

tions, beginning with a long introductory chapter exploring this lit-

erature and bringing it into a nuanced dialogue with literature on

regulation.

As this overview suggests, the book makes two key contributions

to the literature on regulation. First, it places civil society (which is

defined to include private,commercial actors) at the conceptual cen-

tre of its analysis of regulation. Second, it explores the ongoing rele-

vance of (including challenges to) Polanyian approaches to political

economy, given the rise of both risk regulation and transnational

governance. Together these two lines of contribution bring into

sharp relief across all the chapters two particular facets of the pro-

cess of embedding economic relationships in social ones: political

contestation, and institutional path-dependence. In line with these

conceptual emphases, the resulting book is detailed, nuanced, and

contextual, rewarding a close reading and transmitting considerable

learning about some quite highlytechnical policy areas.

Law & Society Review, Volume 51, Number 2 (2017)

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