AAPSS Fellow Manuel Castells was recently appointed Minister of Universities by new Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Castells will oversee Spain’s 50 public universities, directing policy and managing funding. The prime minister has called for a “New National Contract for the University” that will include representatives of the national government, parliament, regional governments, student representatives, business associations, trade unions, and civil society, an initiative that Castells will likely manage. Castells will also coordinate Spanish university policy with the governments of other European Union countries.
Castells is University Professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and Professor of Sociology at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He is the author of the trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (1996-1998), a transformative investigation of how society has changed as a result of the digital revolution.
