Dr. Peter (jay) Smith

Biography

Welcome. I am a professor in political science and long-standing member of the Athabasca University faculty becoming a member of staff in 1981. I have overseen much of the development of the political science curriculum. I have written several undergraduate courses and supervised the development of several others. In 2007 our political science degree program was officially launched and we now have students graduating in political science. I also teach a graduate course, Political Science 580 (available as an undergraduate course, POLI 480) on "The Politics of Cyberspace," a course that reflects my latest research interest.

Research Interest

My research interests have evolved over the years. In recent years I have blended my interests in political theory and political economy into an ongoing research project on the impact of new information and communication technologies on politics and governance, domestically and globally. In terms of the latter I am particularly interested in the use of the Internet to mobilize people and social movements, secular and religious, from around the world in opposition to neoliberal corporate globalization. This work includes becoming part of an international group of scholars studying the World Social Forum, and similar regional, national, and local forums which represent meetings (ranging upwards to 150,000 participants) of those in civil society wishing to find democratic alternatives to the present global order. To this I add an interest in the open source software movement and the global fight over copyright.