Books reviewed in this article: Scott A. Bollens, Urban peace‐building in divided societies: Belfast and Johannesburg Alan Morris, Bleakness and light: inner‐city transition in Hillbrow, Johannesburg Robert Cameron, Democratisation of South African local government: a tale of three cities Susan Parnell, Edgar Pieterse, Mark Swilling and Dominique Wooldridge (eds.), Democratising local government: the South African experiment Grant R. Saff, Changing Cape Town: urban dynamics, policy and planning during the political transition in South Africa