Dr John Reynolds is the founding Head of the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU). Educated at the University of Cape Town and Rhodes University, he has accumulated over twenty years of applied research and policy experience. In that time, he has built on his previous experience in the larger South and Southern Africa to focus increasingly on social and economic development research and facilitation, policy support, and critical reflection on the limits of policy challenge in the South African state. His work in the Eastern Cape has included substantive work on the Eastern Cape Provincial Growth and Development Plan 2004-2014 (on contract to the United Nations Development Programme) and the establishment and implementation of the Thina Sinako Provincial Local Economic Development Support Programme (financed by the European Union in partnership with the Eastern Cape Provincial Government). John’s research interests include the state, development planning, state policy, the labour movement, economic policy, and the changing forms and organisation of work. He holds a PhD from Rhodes University.