Blayne Haggart

Associate Professor, Political Science

BA (Carleton)
MA (Toronto)
MA (Carleton-NPSIA)
PhD (Carleton)

Office: Plaza 341
905-688-5550 x3895
bhaggart@brocku.ca

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Dr. Haggart’s research focuses on the international political economy of knowledge, particularly intellectual property rights, data governance and internet governance. He came to Brock University after several years working as a professional journalist as well as an economist with the Parliamentary Information and Research Service. Beyond International Political Economy, Dr. Haggart also teaches on the politics of sports, particularly hockey and Australian Rules football. His opinion articles have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Conversation, the National Post, and Salon, among other publications.

Blayne Haggart is also a Senior Fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, ON, and an Associate Senior Fellow with the Käte Hamburger Kolleg/Centre for Global Cooperation Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

Area of specialization:

  • International Political Economy
  • International Relations
  • Digital policy
  • Intellectual property rights
  • North American political economy
  • Politics and sports

Selected opinion pieces

“Freedom from domination offers a better path to internet governance,” CIGI Online, March 16, 2022. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/freedom-from-domination-offers-a-better-path-to-internet-governance/.

 “Should American democracy founder, don’t expect Big Tech to lead the resistance,” CIGI Online, February 10, 2022. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/should-american-democracy-fail-dont-expect-big-tech-to-lead-the-resistance/ 

 “Battling the myths of internet regulation as we consider the next iteration of Bill C-10,” CIGI Online, January 17, 2022. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/battling-the-myths-of-internet-regulation-as-we-consider-the-next-iteration-of-bill-c-10/.

“Platform Governance and the clash of values,” CIGI Online, January 10, 2022. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/platform-governance-and-the-clash-of-values/

“Resetting the Debate on Regulating Social Media.” A three-part series. (Part One; Part Two; Part Three). CIGI Online, September 2021. (with Natasha Tusikov)

“Is Canada ready for the platform governance debate?” CIGI Online, June 9, 2021.

“American Internet, American Platforms, American Values,” CIGI Online, May 5, 2021. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/american-internet-american-platforms-american-values/.

“Platform regulation is too important to be left to Americans alone,” Global News, January 16, 2021.

“Saving the economy starts by vanquishing COVID-19,” The Conversation, November 19, 2020.

“Canada’s COVID Alert app is a case of tech-driven bad policy design,” The Conversation, August 13, 2020..

“Stop outsourcing the regulation of hate speech to social media,” The Conversation, March 27, 2019 (with Natasha Tusikov). Reprinted by Global News; National Post.

“Make no mistake: The USMCA is an America-first trade deal,” The Conversation, October 28, 2018. Reprinted by National Post, International Business Times, Hamilton Spectator, Niagara This Week, Brampton Guardian, Toronto.com, Guelph Mercury Tribune.

“It’s time for a new way to regulate social media platforms,” The Conversation, January 17, 2019 (with Natasha Tusikov). Reprinted by National Post, Fast Company, London Free Press, Salon.com.

“What Quayside has taught us about smart cities and data governance,” The Conversation, April 2, 2018 (with Zachary Spicer). Reprinted by National Post, Toronto.com.

“History shows us Sidney Crosby could have stood up to racial injustice,” The Conversation, October 5, 2017. Reprinted by Maclean’s, HuffPost, Good Magazine, National Post.

PUBLICATIONS

  • Books and edited volumes

  • Power and Authority in Internet Governance: Return of the State? Eds. Blayne Haggart, Natasha Tusikov and Jan Aart Scholte. Routledge, 2021.
  • Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century. Eds, Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne and Natasha Tusikov. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. 2019.
  • Copyfight: The global politics of digital copyright reform. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.

  • Refereed journal articles

  • B. Haggart, and Z. Spicer. “Infrastructure, Smart Cities and the Knowledge Economy.” Canadian Public Administration 65, no 2 (2022).
  • “Democratic Legitimacy in Platform Governance,” Telecommunications Policy 45, no 6 (2021): 1-17. (with Clara Iglesias Keller, open access)
  • “Global platform governance and the internet-governance impossibility theorem,” Journal of Digital Media & Policy 11, no 3 (2020): 321-339. (refereed)
  • “Incorporating the study of knowledge into the IPE mainstream, or, when does a trade agreement stop being a trade agreement?” Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 176-203.
  • “Introduction to the Special Issue: Rise of the “Knowledge Structure”: Implications for the Exercise of Power in the Global Political Economy.” Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 164-175.
  • “Contradictory Hypocrisy or Complementary Policies?: The Internet Freedom Initiative, US copyright maximalism and the exercise of US structural power in the digital age.” The Information Society 33, 3 (2017): 1-16 (With Michael Jablonski).
  • “Historical Institutionalism in Communication Studies,” Communication Theory, 25, no. 1, 2015, 1-22 (with Sara Bannerman).
  • “The False Friends Problem for Foreign Norm Transplantation in Developing Countries,” Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 6, no. 2, 2014: 202-229 (with Miranda Forsyth).
  • “Birth of a movement: The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the politicization of Mexican copyright,” Policy & Internet 6, no. 1, 2014: 69-88.
  • “Fair Copyright for Canada: Lessons for Online Social Movements from the First Canadian Facebook Uprising,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 46, no. 4, December 2013: 841-861.
  • “International Copyright Treaties and Digital Works: Implementation Issues in Canada and Mexico.” Australian Journal of Communication, 38, no. 3, December 2011: 33-46.

  • Book review

  • “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,” S. Zuboff (2018),” (long review) Journal of Digital Media & Policy 10, no. 2 (2019): 229-243.

  • Chapters in edited volumes

  • “Canada and the Global Knowledge Economy: Between Knowledge Feudalism and Digital Economic Nationalism.” In Canada and Great Power Competition: Canada Among Nations 2021.” David Carment, Laura Macdonald, Jeremy Paltiel (eds.). 169-190. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • “The ratcheting racket: the global political economy of copyright policy-making.” In Alistair Stewart Duff (ed.), Elgar Handbook on Information Policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021.
  • “The selling of Toronto’s smart city.” In Smart Cities in Canada: Digital Dreams, Corporate Designs. Mariana Valverde and Alexandra Flynn (eds.). Toronto: Lorimer, 2020.
  • “New economic models, new forms of state: The rise of the ‘info-imperium state’,” Kritika: Essays on Intellectual Property, Volume 3. Eds. Hanns Ullrich, Peter Drahos, and Gustavo Ghidini. Edward Elgar, 2018.
  • “What is Intellectual Property?” In Mathew Callahan and Jim Rogers (eds.), Critical Guide to Intellectual Property. Chicago: Zed Books, 2017.
  • “Taking Knowledge Seriously: Towards an International Political Economy Theory of Knowledge Governance,” in Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World. (open access PDF).
  • “Introduction,” in Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World (with Kathryn Henne and Natasha Tusikov). (open access)
  • “Conclusion: Looking Back, Looking Forward,” in Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World (with Kathryn Henne and Natasha Tusikov).
  • “A double-edged sword? Susan Sell in conversation with Blayne Haggart.” In Technologies of International Relations: Conversations on technology, international theory, continuity and change. Eds. Carolin Kaltofen, Madeline Carr and Michele Acuto. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018.
  • “The Government’s Role in Constructing the Data-driven Economy.” In Data Governance in the Digital Age. Ed. Rohinton P. Medhora. Waterloo: Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2018.
  • “Copyfight: Global Redistribution in the Digital Age,” in Structural Redistribution for Global Democracy, eds. Jan Aart Scholte and Lorenzo Fioramonti. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016.
  • “Historical Institutionalism and the Politics of Intellectual Property,” in Intellectual Property for the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Approaches, eds. B. Courtney Doagoo, Mistrale Goudreau, Madelaine Saginur and Teresa Scassa, Toronto: Irwin Law, 2014.
  • “North American Digital Copyright, Regional Governance and the Persistence of Variation,” in Aprehendiendo al delincuente: Crimen y medios en América del norte. Eds. Graciela Martinez-Zalce, Will Straw and Susana Vargas Mexico City: CISAN/UNAM and Media@McGill, 2011.
  • “North American Digital Copyright and the Potential for Variation.” In Canadian Copyright and the Digital Agenda: From Radical Extremism to Balanced Copyright. Geist, Michael, ed. Toronto: Irwin Law, 2010.