Edgar Pieterse

Edgar Pieterse is holder of the DST/NRF Research Chair in Urban Policy. He directs the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. His publications include: Counter-Currents: Experiments in Sustainability in the Cape Town Region (Jacana, 2010); The African Cities Reader (Chimurenga, 2010); City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development, (Zed Books, 2008) and Consolidating Developmental Local Government (UCT Press, 2008). His various scholarly articles focus on topics ranging across: cultural planning, local economic development, sustainable cities and African urbanism. Professor Pieterse advises various development agencies on sustainable urban development policy matters, e.g. the African Development Bank, UN-Habitat, the Development Bank of Southern Africa, and the OECD. Professor Pieterse has recently been invited to serve on aadvisory board for the prestigious international exhibition, Critical Mass: Design and Urbanization, curated by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Musuem. Edgar is a founder member of Isandla Institute, serves on the Boards of Magnet Theatre, the Sustainability Institute and the Cape Town Partnership; as well as the Research Advisory Committee of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory. He holds a PhD from London School of Economics, an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies (The Hague, The Netherlands) and BA-Honours from the University of the Western Cape. See: www.africancentreforcities.net