University of Helsinki
Thulisile Ncamsile Mphambukeli, Associate Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg
Find Dr. Mphambukeli on Research Gate and on Twitter @TNMphambukeli
Dr. Mphambukeli is a National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated international scholar. She is a co-editor of the Journal of BRICS Studies, a Review Editor and a Topic Editor for Governance and Cities for the Frontiers in Sustainable Cities Journal. She is a member of the South African BRICS Think Tank. She was a fellow at The World Academy of Sciences, Italy (hosted at University of Konstanz, Germany); an alumnus of the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes, Brown University USA; an alumnus of the Public Affairs Research Institute, the University of Witwatersrand in SA. She is an alumnus of the African Peacebuilding Network in the Social Science Research Council, USA. She is a recipient of many research grants and awards such as the BRICS Think Tank Academic Forum Grant, NRF Knowledge Interchange and Collaboration (KIC) Individual Travel Grant, South Africa, the Herrenhausen Conference Travel Grant, Hanover, Germany, BRICS Think Tank Academic Forum Seed Funding, South Africa; the African Pathways Programme (APP)/BRICS Teaching and Research Mobility Grantee. She is presently leading a team of scholars from China and South Africa, from a jointly awarded research grant by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for 2019/2022. Her research project team consists of Dr Abraham Matamanda, from the UFS, Department of Geography, Dr Victor Okorie, from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and Prof Peter Ho is a Professorial Research Fellow specialising in Chinese Economy and Development at LSE’s Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science. Titled ‘Exploring the situated political ecology and economy of agricultural land policies in BRICS: A case study of China and South Africa’, Dr Mphambukeli’s team is researching within the parameters of social justice, sustainable development and quality of life. They will also document the policy approaches and strategies adopted by the two countries to support the agriculture-land-water-food-labour nexus and propose an agricultural land policy for China and South Africa.
Abraham R. Matamanda, Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of the Free State (UFS)
Find Abraham on Research Gate and Google Scholar
Abraham has a PhD in Urban & Regional Planning, UFS. His current research focuses on climate change adaptation, planning for sustainable urban food systems and medical geography. Largely, Abraham’s work is situated in informal contexts and poor neighbourhoods which for long have remained as marginal spaces. He employs the political economy thesis and systems thinking in his work.
Abraham’s completed research identifies cities as complex adaptive systems consisting of the natural environment, social dynamics, and economic and political landscape. Consequently, his previous research has been interdisciplinary and thus conceptualized through the systems perspective where he has investigated the urbanization process inherent in Zimbabwe and selected southern African cities through an exploration of these various systems, their linkages, and the feedbacks occurring within them. His work has focused on informal urbanism, urban ecology, basic service delivery, and the morphogenesis and planning of cities and towns in southern African cities. This work is critical and relevant to southern African cities while also recognizing the spatial injustices proliferating in the urban areas contrary to the envisaged inclusive and sustainable cities espoused in the various national development strategies that uphold human rights in accessing basic services in cities. Abraham has presented his work at international conferences and published in national and international peer-reviewed journals, including Land Use Policy, Journal of planning Education and Research, and Journal of Cultural Geography. His recent publication includes a co-edited book titled“ urban geography in postcolonial Zimbabwe: Paradigms and perspectives for sustainable urban planning and governance (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-71539-7). The book was published in 2021 in Springer Nature in the Urban Book series.