Report back on the 2026 IIPPE Annual Conference, September 9 – 12 in Lisbon

The theme of this year’s 16th Annual Conference was Capitalism Moving Beyond Neoliberalism: Crises, Changes, and What Comes Next. It was hosted jointly by ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon & ICS – Lisbon University.

It was very well attended by scholars and activists from all over the globe, and the biggest IIPPE conference since the end of the pandemic.

The first day of the conference, Wednesday, was again dedicated to multiple workshops proposed and conducted by IIPPE Working Groups, members, and others on topics of their choice, allowing them to present and develop work in a flexible workshop format.

The first of three concurrent morning workshops was “Teaching Heterodox Economics: Pedagogy, Funding, and Navigating Futures”, an interactive workshop followed by a closing roundtable on navigating the university — teaching and pedagogy, admin, funding landscapes, futures and alternative institutions. Sponsored by YSI (Young Scholars Initiative).

The second morning workshop was a TIPE (Topics in Political Economy) workshop sponsored by IIPPE on “What Value Theory Does, What Value Theory Is”.

The third workshop was on “The political economy of industrial policy: Navigating competitiveness, greening and techno-nationalist objectives”, sponsored by the YSI (Young Scholars Initiative) States and Markets Working Group and the IIPPE Political Economy of Industrial Policy Working Group.

The topic of the first concurrent afternoon workshop was “An Editor’s Perspectives on Journal Publication, Monograph Proposals, and Book Publishing”, a concrete discussion of the central issues that must be kept in mind for successful submissions of journal articles, monographs or book manuscripts. Sponsored by IIPPE.

The second afternoon workshop was a hybrid workshop on “Why China is not Capitalist”, sponsored by the PE of China’s Development Working Group.

The day of workshops was rounded out by a guided tour of A Voz do Operário, the oldest working-class association in Portugal. Founded in 1879 during a long strike by workers of the tobacco industry, the newspaper A Voz do Operário (‘The worker’s voice’) was followed by the creation of a cooperative dedicated to improving the education and living conditions of the working class. Since 1889 the Sociedade Cooperativa de Instrução e Beneficência, A Voz do Operário has operated in the area of Graça, in the centre of Lisbon, where it offers a broad range of services to its associates, including a large meeting hall, a rich library, a barbershop, social assistance to the elderly and affordable meals. Its monthly newspaper continues to provide readers an independent class perspective on contemporary issues, while its school project (welcoming children from nursery to the 6th grade) stands as an international reference of the Modern School movement, organised by our Lisbon hosts.

In the following three days of panel presentations we had 101 panels, with 317 papers by about 340 presenters (accounting for co-presenters), and 27 registered auditors, of whom 23 attended. Participants came from 55 countries.

The plenary at the end of the second day of the conference was “Permanent austerity: the cost of capitalism” by Clara Mattei.

The plenary at the end of the third day was “The Crises in Neoliberalism and the Rise of Neoliberal Fascism” by Alfredo Saad Filho.

The closing plenary on the final day was a “Debate on the theme of Housing and Work”, with academics and activists, organised by the Local Organising Committee.

The Call for the 17th annual IIPPE Conference in Rethymno, Crete from 8-11 September 2027 will go out in mid-December 2026.

The programme of the 2026 conference is on the 2026 conference page.

IIPPE 2026 Conference Committee

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