Head of the urban policy department at NRF (South African government-owned foundation dedicated to research), he runs the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town. Between 2004 and 2007, he was a government political adviser of the province of Western Cape. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics and a Master’s in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague, Holland).

Co-founder and member of the Board at the Sustainability Institute, he is also co-founder and director of the Islanda Institute, a committee of experts on development policy. He has carried out intense work in the field of NGOs in South Africa, not only in political research, but also in the training and management sectors.

Co-editor of Voices of the Transition: The Politics, Poetics and Practices of Development in South Africa (2004) and Consolidating Developmental Local Government: Lessons from the South Africa Experiment (in press). Among his most recent books, the most prominent are Counter-Currents: Experiments in sustainability in the Cape Town region (Jacana, 2010); The African Cities Reader (Chimurenga Press, 2009); and City Futures (Zed Books, 2008).

His most recent academic papers include: Blurring Boundaries: Fragments of an Urban Research Agenda, Urban Forum, 17(4): 398-412, 2006; and Building with Ruins and Dreams: Exploratory thoughts on realising integrated urban development through crises, Urban Studies, 43(2): 285-304, 2006.

At present, professor Pieterse's research focuses on urbanism, urban culture and regional development in Africa.

Sources:

• Biographical data at the Sustainability Institute

• Information at the African Centre for Cities

• Check for the availability of publications at the Mediateca Casa África