--- title: "URPE at the ASSA 2027 — Washington, DC | Model Diplomat" description: "URPE at the ASSA 2027 is a professional conference in Washington, DC, United States, Jan 3–5, 2027. Organized by Urpe. Full prep on Model Diplomat." url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/conferences/professional/urpe-at-the-assa-2027" --- # URPE at the ASSA 2027 Jan 3–5, 2027[Washington, DC, United States](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1\&query=Washington%2C%20DC%2C%20United%20States)In-person [Registration open](https://urpe.org/conferences-events/urpe-at-the-assas/) The Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) will convene its annual conference in conjunction with the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) meeting in Washington, DC, United States. This event serves as a critical forum for economists and social scientists to engage with heterodox economic perspectives and critiques of mainstream economic theory. Participants will explore a range of topics, often focusing on issues of inequality, power, and social justice within economic systems. ## Committees & topics - Topics Radical Political Economics: Heterodox Critique in a Time of Crisis · The Current Political-Economic Juncture · Poly- and Planetary Crises · Anti-Capitalist Politics in the 21st Century ## Why it matters The URPE at ASSA conference is significant because it provides a platform for alternative economic analyses that often challenge conventional approaches to global economic issues. In a world grappling with persistent economic disparities and systemic crises, the insights generated at such gatherings are crucial for fostering a more nuanced understanding of complex challenges. The discussions frequently delve into the structural underpinnings of economic problems, moving beyond superficial policy fixes to address root causes. This event is particularly relevant for those seeking to understand the diverse intellectual currents shaping economic thought today. It highlights the importance of considering multiple viewpoints, especially from critical traditions, when analyzing economic phenomena. The conference's focus on radical political economy offers a counter-narrative that can inform policy debates and academic discourse, encouraging a broader perspective on economic development and social welfare. The intersection of academic rigor and a commitment to social change makes this conference a vital space for intellectual exchange and the development of new theoretical frameworks. ## How to prepare To effectively engage with the discussions at URPE at ASSA, participants should familiarize themselves with the core tenets of radical political economy. This includes understanding critiques of neoclassical economics, theories of imperialism, and the political economy of development. Reviewing past conference themes and publications from URPE can provide valuable context. Attendees should also consider how the topics presented relate to contemporary global challenges. For instance, understanding the historical and structural factors contributing to economic inequality, as discussed in the context of various countries, can enhance one's ability to participate meaningfully. Preparing questions that probe the practical implications of theoretical frameworks, particularly concerning policy interventions and social movements, will also be beneficial. Engaging with the conference requires an open mind and a willingness to critically examine prevailing economic paradigms. ## Country perspectives Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile. [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Host nation for the conference, a focal point for discussions on economic inequality and policy implications.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Role in topic](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [As the host country, the USA provides the backdrop for many discussions on economic policy, social inequality, and the impact of global capitalism. Its economic structure and policy decisions often serve as case studies for radical political economic analysis.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Often a subject of analysis regarding state-led development and its global economic impact.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Role in topic](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [The economic model of CHN, characterized by state intervention and rapid growth, frequently features in discussions about alternative development paths and the challenges to Western economic hegemony. Its role in global supply chains and international finance is also a common topic.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Represents a significant emerging economy, often discussed in terms of dependency theory and development challenges.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Role in topic](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [BRA, as a major economy in South America, is often analyzed through the lens of dependency theory and its struggles with inequality, resource extraction, and integration into the global capitalist system. Its political and economic shifts provide rich material for critical economic studies.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [A large developing economy, relevant for discussions on labor, globalization, and social stratification.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Role in topic](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [IND's vast population, complex social structures, and ongoing economic development present unique challenges and opportunities that are frequently examined within radical political economy. Topics like labor exploitation, the informal economy, and the impact of globalization are particularly pertinent.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [South Africa](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [Post-apartheid economy, often discussed in terms of structural inequality and neo-colonialism.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [Role in topic](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [ZAF's post-apartheid economic trajectory, marked by persistent inequality and debates over economic transformation, provides a crucial case study for understanding the legacies of colonialism and the challenges of achieving equitable development within a globalized capitalist system.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) ## Topics & background The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it. 1 ### Radical Political Economics: Heterodox Critique in a Time of Crisis Radical political economics emerged in the late 1960s in the United States as a self-conscious challenge to the neoclassical mainstream, drawing on Marxian, Institutionalist, feminist, and post-Keynesian traditions. The Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE), founded in 1968, became its principal scholarly home, producing the Review of Radical Political Economics and providing a venue for analyses of class, race, gender, imperialism, and ecological degradation that orthodox economics largely sidelined. From its origins in Vietnam-era campus organizing, the field broadened to cover global value chains, financialization, social reproduction, and the political economy of climate change. The core dispute is methodological and political: whether capitalism is a self-correcting allocative system best modeled by individual optimization and general equilibrium, or a historically specific, crisis-prone class structure that reproduces inequality and ecological breakdown. Radical economists argue that the discipline's dominant framework cannot adequately explain stagnation, rising inequality, the 2008 financial crisis, or the climate emergency, and that policy prescriptions flowing from it have entrenched neoliberal governance since the 1980s. Today, radical political economics is experiencing renewed visibility as mainstream institutions concede ground on industrial policy, inequality, and market power, while heterodox scholars press for deeper structural analysis. Debates within the field concern how to integrate race and gender with class analysis, how to theorize the rise of China and a multipolar order, and how to translate critique into transformative policy in advanced and developing economies alike. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Birthplace of URPE and center of the radical economics tradition within a discipline dominated by US-trained neoclassical orthodoxy.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Hosts major heterodox networks (CSE, post-Keynesian and Marxist scholars at SOAS, Cambridge, Leeds) shaping global radical debates.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Home of the Régulation School and Piketty's inequality research program, key interlocutors for radical political economy.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) - [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Latin American structuralist and dependency traditions feed directly into contemporary radical analyses of the Global South.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) - [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Strong heterodox economics community engaging questions of agrarian change, informal labor, and development under neoliberalism.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) 2 ### The Current Political-Economic Juncture The post-2008 conjuncture has dismantled core tenets of the neoliberal consensus that governed the world economy since the 1980s. Quantitative easing, the eurozone crisis, the China-led commodity cycle, Brexit, Trump-era tariffs, the COVID-19 fiscal expansion, and the inflation shock following Russia's invasion of Ukraine have together produced what many heterodox economists describe as an interregnum: the old neoliberal order is exhausted, but no stable successor regime has consolidated. Industrial policy, sanctions, friend-shoring, and capital controls — once heresies in Washington — are now standard instruments in the US, EU, and across emerging economies. The central dispute concerns the character of this transition. Some analysts see a turn toward 'productivist' or 'post-neoliberal' state capitalism epitomized by the US Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act; others argue these measures repackage neoliberal logics in nationalist form, leaving labor weak, financial power intact, and the Global South squeezed by tightening dollar liquidity and unresolved debt distress. The rise of authoritarian right-wing movements across democracies, deepening US–China rivalry, and the fragmentation of trade and payments systems add political volatility to the economic restructuring. The juncture today is defined by simultaneous pressures: reindustrialization in the North, sovereign debt crises in the South, demographic aging, AI-driven labor displacement, and the imperative of decarbonization. Whether the emerging order will be more egalitarian and ecologically rational, or a militarized 'green' capitalism that intensifies geopolitical conflict, is the open question structuring radical political-economic debate. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Architect of the post-neoliberal industrial-policy turn (IRA, CHIPS Act) and central node of the dollar system reshaping global finance.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [State-led developmental model and Belt and Road financing represent the principal challenge to US-anchored economic governance.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Eurozone hegemon navigating deindustrialization, energy shock, and the unraveling of its export-led growth model.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [Russia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/russia) [Sanctions regime triggered by the Ukraine war is a key catalyst for fragmentation of trade, energy, and payments systems.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/russia) - [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Leading voice for Global South interests in BRICS+ on debt, climate finance, and reform of the international monetary system.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) - [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Strategic swing state shaping the future of non-alignment, digital sovereignty, and South-South industrial competition.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) 3 ### Poly- and Planetary Crises The concept of 'polycrisis' — popularized by historian Adam Tooze and adopted by the World Economic Forum and UN agencies — describes the entanglement of shocks whose interaction produces outcomes greater than the sum of their parts: pandemic, war, inflation, food and energy insecurity, financial fragility, democratic backsliding, and accelerating climate breakdown. 'Planetary crisis,' rooted in Earth-system science and the planetary boundaries framework developed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, emphasizes that humanity has breached safe operating limits for climate, biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, and freshwater, threatening the stability of the Holocene conditions in which civilization developed. The dispute lies in causation and response. Mainstream framings often treat the polycrisis as a coincidence of exogenous shocks to be managed through better risk governance, green finance, and technological innovation. Radical and ecological economists counter that these crises are systemic outputs of capitalist accumulation — fossil dependence, extractive supply chains, the subordination of social reproduction, and the imperial mode of living of high-income societies — and that incrementalist responses will not restore planetary stability. The COP process, the Bridgetown Initiative on climate finance, and proposals for loss-and-damage funding sit at the contested frontier between these views. As of the late 2020s, global temperatures have repeatedly breached the 1.5°C threshold on an annual basis, sovereign debt service is crowding out climate adaptation in much of the Global South, and biodiversity loss is accelerating. The question facing political economists is whether existing institutions can deliver a just transition at the speed and scale planetary boundaries demand, or whether more transformative — possibly post-growth or eco-socialist — alternatives are required. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Largest historical emitter and dominant financial power; its domestic politics determine the viability of global climate cooperation.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [World's largest current emitter and leading producer of clean-energy technology; pivotal to any planetary mitigation pathway.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) - [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Key voice for development space and equity in climate negotiations; rapidly growing energy demand makes its trajectory decisive.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) - [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Custodian of the Amazon and host of recent COP diplomacy; central to biodiversity and tropical-forest dimensions of planetary crisis.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) - [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Driver of EU Green Deal and climate finance debates, while navigating an energy-security shock that has tested decarbonization commitments.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) - [Barbados](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/barbados) [Through the Bridgetown Initiative, leads small-island and vulnerable-country coalition demanding reform of climate and debt finance.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/barbados) 4 ### Anti-Capitalist Politics in the 21st Century Anti-capitalist politics has taken successive forms over the past two centuries — from 19th-century socialist and anarchist movements, through 20th-century communist parties, social democracy, and Third World national liberation, to the alter-globalization movement of the late 1990s and the Occupy and square movements of the early 2010s. The collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989–91 and the subsequent neoliberal triumphalism narrowed the political horizon, but the 2008 financial crisis reopened space for explicit critique of capitalism, visible in the brief electoral surges of Sanders, Corbyn, Mélenchon, and a wave of Latin American left governments. The core dispute concerns strategy and program. Debates run between reform and rupture; between class-centered and broader 'people-vs-oligarchy' framings; between state-oriented projects (democratic socialism, the Green New Deal, eco-Leninism) and prefigurative or commons-based approaches (mutual aid, cooperatives, degrowth, the pluriverse). Cross-cutting questions about race, gender, indigeneity, and ecology have reshaped what counts as an anti-capitalist agenda, while the rise of the authoritarian right has forced the left into defensive coalitions that sometimes blunt its anti-systemic edge. Today, anti-capitalist politics is fragmented but globally present: labor militancy has revived in the United States and parts of Europe; pink-tide governments in Latin America pursue varied post-neoliberal projects under tight fiscal constraints; movements in the Global South challenge extractivism and ecological debt; and a younger generation increasingly views capitalism unfavorably in opinion polling. The strategic problem is translating diffuse opposition into durable institutions capable of governing a just transition in conditions of polycrisis and great-power rivalry. Key players - [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Renewed labor organizing, the democratic-socialist current, and abolitionist movements make it a key laboratory of contemporary anti-capitalist politics.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) - [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Site of the Corbyn experiment and its defeat; ongoing debates over Labour, trade-union revival, and post-Brexit political economy.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) - [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Strong tradition of mass strikes, the gilets jaunes, and the NUPES/NFP left-bloc experiment shape European anti-capitalist strategy.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) - [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [PT-led government, MST land struggles, and Amazonian movements anchor a major Global South left project under elite and ecological pressure.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) - [Bolivia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/bolivia) [MAS-era plurinational experiment and ongoing debates over extractivism vs. buen vivir inform indigenous and eco-socialist currents.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/bolivia) - [South Africa](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [Post-apartheid trade-union movement, EFF, and community struggles over inequality and energy transition keep anti-capitalist politics central to public life.](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) ## Resources News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for URPE at the ASSA 2027. Recent reporting to ground your prep [West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis 2026](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/west-bengal-voter-deletion-crisis-ahead-of-2026-assembly-elections) [Rahul Gandhi Defends Tamil Nadu's Autonomy](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/rahul-gandhis-stand-against-131st-amendment-bill-in-tamil-nadu) [India's 131st Amendment Bill](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/indias-131st-amendment-bill-womens-reservation-for-2029-elections) [West Bengal Voter Deletion Crisis](https://modeldiplomat.com/story/west-bengal-voter-deletion-crisis-27-million-affected-ahead-of-polls) Lessons Bite-sized lessons to build the basics [Hidden Stakeholders](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/hidden-stakeholders) [Engagement Strategies](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/engagement-strategies) [Dynamic Analysis](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/dynamic-analysis) [Stakeholder Mapping Workshop](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/stakeholder-workshop) Courses Guided courses that go deeper on the topic [Advanced Negotiation](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/advanced-negotiation) [Multilateral Negotiation](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/multilateral-negotiation) [Policy Brief Writing](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/policy-brief) [Conflict Resolution](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/courses/conflict-resolution) The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance [United States](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-states) [United Kingdom](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/united-kingdom) [France](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/france) [Brazil](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/brazil) [India](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/india) [China](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/china) [Germany](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/germany) [Russia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/russia) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/russia) [Barbados](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/barbados) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/barbados) [Bolivia](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/bolivia) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/bolivia) [South Africa](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) [Country dossier](https://modeldiplomat.com/country/south-africa) ## Frequently asked questions - - - Free account Save conferences, research any topic with AI, build position papers, and keep your daily prep streak — free. [Create free account](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-up?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Furpe-at-the-assa-2027) Already a member? [Log in](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-in?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Furpe-at-the-assa-2027) Free account Save conferences, research any topic with AI, build position papers, and keep your daily prep streak — free. [Create free account](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-up?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Furpe-at-the-assa-2027) Already a member? [Log in](https://modeldiplomat.com/sign-in?next=%2Fconferences%2Fprofessional%2Furpe-at-the-assa-2027)