The increasing liberalization and globalisation of the world economy has not been accompanied by covergence in the various indicators of economic and social development. The papers in this volume go some way towards explaining why the increasing reliance on market forces may lead to greater divergences in economic performance. They also point to the importance for the development process of social solidarity and institutions which encourage co-operative approaches to problem solving.

Frances Stewart is Emeritus Professor of Development Economics, Emeritus Fellow of Somerville College and Director of the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), University of Oxford, UK. Among many publications, she is the co-author of UNICEF's influential study Adjustment with a Human Face and author of Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict. She has directed a number of major research programmes including several financed by the UK Government's Department for International Development and has served as Chair of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy.