Communications

2012 Socrates in Madrid

April 22, 2012  • Institute Contributor

2012SocratesMadridThe Socrates Program, in partnership with Aspen España, launched its first series of international seminars in Madrid, Spain, April 19-22. Participants from the U.S. and all over Europe participated in the seminars, “Capitalism at a Crossroads” and “Privacy and Technology.” In addition to roundtable discussions, the weekend included official meetings and special private visits to tourist sites in Madrid. 

Socrates International
Madrid, Spain
April 19-22, 2012

Schedule

Capitalism at a Crossroads
Do the recent economic catastrophe and interventionist government response in the US suggest that free markets don’t work? Does State capitalism work? This seminar will explore the strengths and weaknesses of public and private forces in the economy.
Moderator: Clive Crook, senior editor, The Atlantic; columnist and editor, Bloomberg

 From Facebook to Body Scanners: The Future of Privacy and Technology in the Age of Google
Changes in technology are posing stark challenges to our conceptions of privacy and freedom in democracies around the world. As anyone who has struggled with an embarrassing Facebook photo understands, it’s increasingly difficult to escape your past or to reinvent yourself in an age when the Internet records everything and forgets nothing. In this seminar we will discuss technologies that are transforming our conceptions of privacy and liberty ranging from gossip on Facebook to human cloning and genetic selection to body scanning and datamining at airports to Google and Twitter. And we will identify the range of legal, technological, and cultural options that citizens have as we struggle to respond to technological shifts, offering an analytical blueprint for translating values such as privacy and liberty into the twenty-first century.
Moderator: Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Law, the George Washington University School of Law; and legal affairs editor, The New Republic