The International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) is organizing its 16th international conference, to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, from Wednesday, 9 September, to Saturday, 12 September 2026. Their call for papers and activist proposals is large and includes many sub-working groups with their own mini calls for papers. The submission deadline is February 15, 2026.
People interested in the planning question might be interested mainly in two working groups: the Varieties of Socialism Working Group and the Moving Beyond Capitalism Working Group.
“The Varieties of Socialism Working Group invites you to submit proposals for individual papers or themed panels, discussing any topic related to the political economy of actually existing socialist regimes. They welcome papers from all disciplinary corners that critically engage with a wide range of topics like planning mechanisms, (Longue-durée) backwardness and ‘catching-up’ efforts, industrial development, agrarian change, labour, class relations, and entanglements with the capitalist world. This list is far from exhaustive, and they are open to papers on any other topic, as long as they have a clear political-economy orientation.”
“The Moving Beyond Capitalism Working Group invites you to submit proposals for individual papers or themed panels, discussing anything related to moving beyond capitalism. Possible topics include (just as examples):
- the role of a “vanguard party” (and what its nature would be) in the fight to transcend capitalism
- capitalist society or a transition to it
- considerations of the success and failures of 20century national attempts to do so such as the Soviet Union, China, Yugoslavia, and Cuba
- current 21st century nations claiming to be trying to do so such as China, Vietnam, and Cuba
- various institutions of the SSE (Social and Solidarity Economy) that present themselves as anti-capitalist
- the relation between fighting identity oppression and fighting class exploitation in the fight to transcend capitalism”
To submit to the central conference organizing committee, write to: conference@iippe.org
To submit to the Varieties of Socialism Working Group, write to: cucualinasandra@gmail.com
To submit to the Moving Beyond Capitalism Working Group, write to: al@econimcs.utah.edu