The sociology of the arts of human governance observes society as an arrangement of self-management and external management strategies. In his new book, Ulrich Bröckling analyses overarching action orientations such as planning, prevention and resilience, methods of conflict management, communicative technologies, programmes of contract pedagogy and concepts of subtle behavioural control, such as those propagated under the label of "nudging". These methods respond to crises of social integration by strengthening their potential for self-regulation. Instead of using coercion or punitive measures, they rely on contextual control and cybernetic feedback loops.