Political economist, PATRICK BOND  is the director of the Centre for Civil Society, and teaches political economy and eco-social policy at the School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa. His research interests include economic justice, energy and water, NGO work in urban communities, and global justice movements in several countries.

Bond has authored/edited more than a dozen policy papers of the new South African government between 1994-2002, including Reconstruction and Development Programme, and the RDP White Paper. For information about his current research projects, please visit the Centre for Civil Society website. 

Bond was educated at Swarthmore College, Department of Economics, the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Johns Hopkins University Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, where he received his Ph.D. in 1993.

Previous Visiting Professorships include: York University Department of Political Science and Faculty of Environmental Studies in Toronto (2003); Africa University Institute for Peace, Leadership and Governance in Mutare, Zimbabwe (2004); Central European University Summer School on Transnational Flows, Structures, Agents and the Idea of Development, Hungary (2005); Chulalongkorn University’s Focus on the Global South Course on Globalisation and Civil Society, in Bangkok, Thailand (2006); Stellenbosch University Sustainability Institute (2007); State University of New York in Geneseo (2008); and Gyeongsang National University Institute of Social Services, South Korea.

During Bond's week long stay, Sept. 28-Oct. 2, he visited numerous classes, met informally with students, and presented two public lectures, "Climate Change: What's Wrong with Carbon Trading," and "South African Politics in the Zuma Era."  In addition he particpated in two panel discussions, "The Current Crisis and the Future of Capitalism," with Dr. David Tuerck, Economics Department, and Associate Dean Sebastian Royo, CAS Dean's Office; as well as "Looting Africa," with James Carroll, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, and Lina Zedriga Waru Abuku, Hunt Alternatives Fund.