Since the 1970s, we have seen big changes in the patterns of world politics, economics and culture. These trends include the increasing dominance of finance capital, greater inequality both between and within countries and the rise of a privatised consumer culture. Contributors to this issue attempt to make sense of these changes and to find ways of challenging the "common sense" of neo-liberal ideology and market capitalism. Zygmunt Bauman looks at the some of ideological underpinnings of our privatised culture; Andrew Cooper and Michael Rustin, in separate essays, look at what has happened in the welfare state; Michael Fielding analyses the government"s personalisation agenda in education; and George Shire writes about the ways in which discourses of racialisation have been changing.Elsewhere in the issue, Allan Kellehear argues the need for a greater understanding of how to support people at the end of their lives; Andrew Pearmain puts forward a view of Englishness that is likely to stimulate debate; George Irvin shows how the Anglo-American economic model has led to increasing levels of inequality and is likely to precipitate a global recession; and Michael Prior argues that it is time for the left to get itself better organised and networked. Finally, Jon Cruddas discusses with Jonathan Rutherford his views on socialism, class and the prospects for a left renaissance within the Labour Party.