Publication

This paper explores the social, economic and ideological context within which the 1995 World Summit for Social Development took place. The authors point out that the Summit was conceived during a period when neo-liberal orthodoxy was at its height and asks if this is the same five years later. The publication argues that at the ideological level, neoliberalism is far more contested than it was at the time of the Summit, as the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the neo-liberal model have been accompanied by growing political opposition.