Fiona Anciano

Fiona Anciano is a Professor in Political Studies and founder of the Politics and Urban Governance Research Group (PUG) at the University of the Western Cape, and a Visiting Researcher at University West, Sweden.

She is a qualitative researcher with an interest in urban governance, democratisation, citizenship and civil society. Working with student teams, she conducts research in informal settlements on urban democracy.

Fiona has managed over 20 grant projects in Cape Town and comparatively over the last 12 years and has produced numerous local and international publications, including a co-authored book Democracy Disconnected: Participation and Governance in a City of the South, in 2019 and edited the 2021 book Political Values and Narratives of Resistance: Social Justice and the Fractured Promises of Post-colonial States both published in the United Kingdom by Routledge.