Patrick Bond specialises in political economy, geopolitics, political ecology (resource extraction, energy, water and climate change), social mobilisation, state-society relations and public policy. From 2015-2019 Patrick was Distinguished Professor of Political Economy at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Governance (WSG), where he also worked from 1997-2004 (as founder of the doctoral programme and co-director of the Municipal Services Project). From 2004-15, he was Senior Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal School of Built Environment and Development Studies, and also served as Director of the Centre for Civil Society, and in that period was also visiting professor at Gyeongsang National University, South Korea and an associate of the Leverhulme Centre for the Study of Value at the University of Manchester. On sabbatical, he was a visiting scholar at the University of California/Berkeley Department of Geography in 2010-11, and at York University’s Department of Political Science and Faculty of Environmental Sciences in 2003-04. He was assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in 1994-95. He has held visiting posts at a dozen universities and presented lectures at more than 100 others. Other current affiliations include the National School of Government as an advisor, and the School for International Training as a guest faculty member, and Patrick is also an editorial advisory board member to ten international academic journals.
In service to the new South African government from 1994-2002, Patrick authored or edited more than a dozen major policies, including the Reconstruction and Development Programme and RDP White Paper. He was earlier based at two Johannesburg NGOs (National Institute for Economic Policy, 1996-97 and Planact, 1990-94); at the University of Zimbabwe’s Department of Political and Administrative Studies (1989-90); and in Washington, DC at the Institute for Policy Studies, Pacifica Radio, MarketPlace Radio, and international trade unions (late 1980s). He was also active in anti-apartheid advocacy and the US student movement, and in 1995 worked in the International Liaison Office of Haitian President Aristide.
Patrick earned his doctorate in economic geography under the supervision of David Harvey at Johns Hopkins University (1985-92), following studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance (Philadelphia, 1983-85) and an undergraduate economics degree at Swarthmore College (Philadelphia, 1979-83).
