Society - what is it?

An interesting quote of the day from libertarian blog Samizdata; from the editor:-

Society is something emergent that occurs when people interact with each other, you cannot point at it and you cannot owe it anything. When any politician says the word ’society’, you can be damn sure what he really means is ‘the state’.
- Perry de Havilland

This leads me to ask ‘what is society to you?’

Is society something organic or is it a deliberate construct? Can we influence society, and should we? Why are societies so different; and how do law, government, and culture impact upon it, or define it?

Comment:
Personally I believe society is a collective economic contract where we refrain from hobbesian selfish anarchy for the benefit of shared prosperity. Of course institutions such as law and education define the nature of society. As society is organic we should limit any deliberate ’shaping’ of it, as we can never really know the impact of unnatural influence. Society should be allowed to reach its own equilibrium through the economic and democratic choices of the many - not through ideological social engineering of the few.