Lecture and Colloquium Tech & Society «Polarization, New Technology and the Threat of the New Authoritarianisms» with Fernando Vallespín

Aspen Institute España y Fundación Telefónica will host the fourth and last Lecture & Colloquium of the ninth edition of the Tech & Society Program with Fernando Vallespín, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid, as a speaker. The Lecture and Colloquium will take place on December 3rd at 7 pm at the Espacio Fundación Telefónica Auditorium and will be moderated by Carmen Madorrán, Philosophy Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The Lecture will be open to the public, be in Spanish with translation into English and will be available on the program’s YouTube channel.

Polarization, New Technology and the Threat of the New Authoritarianisms

The purpose of the lecture is to establish a connection between the development of new technologies and politics, with particular emphasis on their capacity to reconfigure—and distort—democracy. In this regard, we will highlight two aspects that already display worrying signs. First, the subjection of political communication to new forms of manipulation and stimulation of public opinion, which are one of the main causes of the high levels of polarization we are witnessing; and second, the enthronement of the major platforms as new spheres of power which, through their control over the circulation of information and communication, evade traditional institutional mechanisms of political oversight and may already be foreshadowing a gradual shift toward new forms of authoritarianism.

Fernando Vallespín Oña

Fernando Vallespín Oña is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the Autonomous University of Madrid, the university where he has carried out nearly his entire academic career, and where he has held positions such as Vice-Rector for Culture, Director of the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Center for Political Theory. He was a postdoctoral Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University and a visiting professor at the universities of Frankfurt, Heidelberg, and Dresden in Germany—where he completed several research stays—as well as at the universities of Veracruz and Malaysia. He has published more than a dozen books and well over a hundred academic articles and book chapters in Spanish and international journals, with a particular focus on contemporary political theory. His most recent book is Judith Shklar y el liberalismo del miedo (Trotta, 2025). He has served as President of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) and Director of the Ortega y Gasset Research Institute, President of the Spanish Political Science Association, and member of the Executive Council of the International Political Science Association. He is a full member of the Royal Academy of Political and Moral Sciences and Director of Revista de Occidente. He is also a regular contributor to the newspaper El País.

Carmen Madorrán

Carmen Madorrán Ayerra (Pamplona, 1989) holds a PhD in Philosophy. She has a Master’s degree in Bioethics and Law (University of Barcelona, 2019) and another in Philosophical Criticism and Argumentation (Autonomous University of Madrid, 2012). She works as a permanent lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Madrid, where she coordinates the Research Group on Ecological Humanities. She is the author of Needs in the Face of the Ecosocial Crisis: Thinking the Good Life in the Anthropocene (Plaza y Valdés, 2023), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She regularly participates in national and international research projects and organizes research and knowledge-transfer activities. Her main research lines are related to contemporary political and moral reflection in the context of the ecosocial crisis.

IX Edition of the Tech & Society Program

The Tech & Society Program has become Spain’s leading forum for reflecting on the major issues raised by the advancement of digital technology. The 9th edition will bring together various leaders from all sectors of civil society to debate new technological challenges and their impact on diverse fields such as human relations, politics, education, culture, the economy, and medicine.