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People Walking
Port

9th Annual Meeting of Political Economy

Fundamental rights, well-being and quality of life

Institute of Sociology
University of Porto and Católica Porto Business School


January 29-31, 2026

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CALL FOR COMMUNICATIONS

Submission Deadline: September 30, 2025

 

 

The Portuguese Association of Political Economy (EcPol) launches the call for papers for its

9 th yearly meeting, which will take place at the Instituto de Sociologia, Universidade do Porto

and the Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, on January 29-

31, 2026, with the topic Fundamental rights, well-being and quality of life.

The meeting aims to bring together all those who, from the most diverse disciplinary fields

and approaches, understand economic phenomena as being eminently shaped by social,

political, philosophical, legal, cultural, technological and ecological factors. These factors

should be studied within their institutional, historical, and geographical contexts.

The meeting, which will start on January 29, 2026, will include the EcPol winter school,

where guest experts will stimulate discussions on the doctoral projects presented by the

students.

PRESENTATION

 

The topic for the 2026 meeting recalls the 50th anniversary of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, approved in 1976, which has established rights, freedoms and protections, as well as economic, social and cultural rights and duties.

The scientific literature that has analysed the evolution of wellbeing and quality of life has highlighted that progresses in these fields are neither certain nor homogeneous. For instance, in the wealthiest countries, the quality of life for people has not kept pace with the growth of national income. At the global scale, we are witnessing a critical moment, in which basic rights are being weakened, with significant changes in the approach of countries that have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, democratic involution in several countries, unprecedented concentrations of wealth and increase of economic inequality, among other concerning trends.

Political economy addresses these phenomena in their substantive, plural and multifaceted dimensions, rejecting simplistic, reductionist and determinist understandings; rather understanding economic science, and its links with close disciplinary fields, as a means to achieve different goals – namely, justice and environmental and social sustainability – rather than goals in themselves.

 

The meeting thus calls for scholars and professionals from different backgrounds and disciplines to reflect: on patterns and dynamics of evolution of fundamental rights, and the implementation of social, economic, cultural and environmental rights in the promotion of wellbeing and quality of life, in Portugal and beyond; and on the ways to act, across economy, society, culture and politics, at multiple institutional levels in order to make rights more than simple declarations, to expand and strengthen quality of life, and to widen democratic imaginaries, expectations and experiences.

APRESENTAÇÃO
People Walking

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

kgoncalves.jpg

Carlos Manuel Gonçalves

Presidente do Encontro

FLUP

More Keynote speakers to be announced soon

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

 

We welcome proposals for panels from researchers, thematic sections or regional groups, as well as communications on the following topics, among others:

Economics of human rights

Economics of happiness

Patterns and dynamics of wellbeing, quality of life and development

History and political economy of rights

Ontological dimensions of wellbeing

Economic, environmental and social sustainability

Capitalist transformations and alternative economic models

Financialisation, digitalisation, wellbeing and fundamental rights

Evolution of the Portuguese Constitution

Territorial inequalities and asymmetries in wellbeing and human rights

Philosophy of wellbeing and basic rights

Geopolitics of innovation and technological dependency

AI and patterns of labour with meaning

Dignity in labour and the future of labour

Technology, inequality and social inclusion

Welfare state and provision of fundamental rights

Political economy of care, social economy, solidarity economy and other economic approaches

Trade unions, cooperatives and social movements

Political economy of peripheralization and coloniality

Methodological pluralism and teaching pedadogy

 

Proposals may be submitted for:

1) Communications;

2) Communications to panels organised by EcPol’s thematic sections:

3) Painéis temáticos livres, compostos por 3 ou 4 comunicações.

 

3) Free thematic panels consisting of 3 or 4 papers.

 

Communications relating to doctoral thesis projects should preferably be presented at the Winter School.

Proposals must be submitted in the language of the communications, with the option of Portuguese, Spanish or English. 

Proposals for papers and thesis projects must contain the following information:

i) Title;

ii) Type of proposal (paper, thesis project);

iii) Name, institutional affiliation and e-mail address of the proposer(s);

iv) Abstract and 4 keywords (max. 400 words).

 

Panel proposals must contain the following information:

i) Session title;

ii) Summary of the session (max. 200 words);

iii) Name, institutional affiliation and e-mail address of the panel proposer(s) and participants;

iv) Title, abstract and keywords (max. 400 words) of the papers included.

 

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Proposals for papers and thesis projects should be submitted using the form at https://forms.gle/AGUmoqp3Fn3dhG2Y7

Papers to be included in the panels organised by EcPol thematic sections should be submitted by e-mail:

Proposals for free thematic panels should be submitted via email: 9encontroecpol@gmail.com 

SUBMISSÕES
INSCRIÇÕES
REGISTRATION

REGISTRATION FEES

- EcPol members (2025 membership fee up to date) | Without Institutional Support

Until November 30, 2025: 75 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

Until December 20, 2025: 90 euros (including 2026 membership fee)

 

- EcPol members (2025 membership fee up to date) | With Institutional Support

Until November 30, 2025: 100 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

Until December 20, 2025: 115 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

 

- Students with institutional support

Until November 30, 2025: 50 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

Until December 20, 2025: 65 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

 

- Students without institutional support and unemployed 

Until November 30, 2025: 30 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

Until December 20, 2025: 45 euros (including 2026 membership fee)

 

- Other Non-members with Institutional support

Until November 30, 2025: 110 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

Until December 20, 2025: 125 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

 

- Other non-members | No Institutional Support

 Until November 30, 2025: 95 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

Until December 20, 2025: 110 euros (includes 2026 membership fee)

 

- The conference dinner will take place on january 30

IMPORTANT DATES

 

 

October 31, 2025

Deadline for thesis project proposals

 

November 10, 2025

Notification of acceptance of proposals

 

November 30, 2025

Registration for the Meeting and/or Winter School

 

December 20, 2025

Late registration for the Meeting and payment and Registration for the Winter

School

DATAS IMPORTANTES
PROGRAMA
PROGRAMME

More information coming soon

ESCOLA
Audience and Lecturer
WINTER SCHOOL


more information soon

ESCOLA

ADDRESS

Localização

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Ana Costa (Iscte)

Ana Teresa Ribeiro (Faculdade de Direito - UCP Porto)

Aurora Teixeira (FEP)

Catarina de Oliveira Carvalho (Faculdade de Direito - UCP Porto)

Eduarda Gonçalves (Iscte)

Fabio Bertoni (ICS-ULisboa)

Francisco Louçã (ISEG-ULisboa)

Irene Peano (ICS-ULisboa)

João Teixeira Lopes (FLUP)

Jorge Malheiros (IGOT-ULisboa)

José Reis (FEUC)

Leonida Correia (UTAD)

Liliana Fernandes (Católica Porto Business School) 

Luisa Veloso (Iscte)

Manuel Couret Branco (Universidade de Évora) 

Nuno Ornelas Martins (Católica Porto Business School)

Pierre Guibentif (Iscte)

Tiago Carvalho (Iscte)

Virgílio Borges Pereira (FLUP)

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Amarílis Felizes,

Cláudia Amador

Conceição Rego

Gabriel Leite Mota

Gonçalo Marcelo

Joana Silva

João Moreira de Campos

José Pedo Oliveira

João Pereira

José Soeiro

Luís Pedro Freitas

Ricardo Noronha

Simone Tulumello

Sofia Cruz

Solange Leonel

Organização
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