Pinning down what civil society is and what it does is not easy. It is regarded differently in different countries, and it changes its composition and role over time, in response to external circumstances, such as the profound changes in Eastern Europe after 1989, or the current rise of social media and the globalized world of the Internet. It ranges from what might better be called civic society, the world of prestigious organizations and professional associations that process in splendour on important occasions, to local clubs and choirs. It is classically a fuzzy concept, with a core that is readily identified but other features that are present to a greater or lesser extent as other examples emerge, so that membership and function shade off into an indistinct boundary. Yet it is useful in filling in elements of human experience that sit between the individual and the state and so worth exploring further.