Speaker: Professor Mark Olssen (University of Surrey) Title: Liberalism, Neoliberalism and the Global Public Good: The Consequences of Climate Change

A number of factors conspire at this juncture to derail the neoliberal settlement however. One is market failure as witnessed by the Credit Crunch and the current recession being experienced throughout Europe. Other factors such as population explosion, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and environmental catastrophe could exert even greater pressure for a reversal of the neoliberal project. Moderate or severe climate change could intensify such trends even further. Taken together, these factors could forseeably have a major impact on transforming the political and economic settlement as it has operated under neo-liberalism since the 1970s, resulting in the emergence of global political and educational structures constitutive of a new global welfare polis together with a global common good. My paper outlines the shifts in theoretical rationale and practice that might accompany such a transition.