Patrick Bond, PhD

Patrick Bond, a political economist, is professor at the University of the Western Cape School of Government in Cape Town. This appointment follows two decades of teaching at Wits University School of Governance in Johannesburg and the University of KwaZulu-Natal Centre for Civil Society in Durban. Born in Northern Ireland, Bond was raised in the U.S. state of Alabama. After graduating from Swarthmore College’s economics department, he began his career at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank while continuing studies at the Wharton School of Finance. He then pursued doctoral studies in economic geography at Johns Hopkins University and worked at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. Throughout, he learned politics in the anti-apartheid, labour, student, and community movements. After moving to Southern Africa in 1989, he served urban social movements based at the NGO Planact in Johannesburg. In 1994 and 1996, he worked in the Reconstruction and Development Ministry in President Nelson Mandela’s office, drafting the democratic government’s first white paper and other documents. His best-known work is Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa. Additional critical analyses can be found in the books Politics of Climate Justice, Against Global Apartheid, Talk Left Walk Right, Looting Africa, The Accumulation of Capital in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe’s Plunge, Uneven Zimbabwe, and Cities of Gold, Townships of Coal, as well as numerous journal and professional articles.

Education

• PhD, Johns Hopkins University
• BA, Swarthmore College