Neoliberalism as concept

This paper is a critical exploration of the term neoliberalism. Drawing on a wide range of literature across the critical social sciences and with particular emphasis on the political economy of development, it evaluates the consequences of its proliferation and expanded usage since the 1980s. It advances a case that neoliberalism has become a deeply problematic and incoherent term that has multiple and contradictory meanings. In addition, the paper also explores the way that neoliberalism serves to signify and reproduce the divide between economics and the rest of the social sciences, and the consequences that this bears.