Developing Areas Research Group

The Developing Areas Research Group (DARG) aims to promote research and understanding of development processes, issues, problems and challenges in the broadest sense.

DARG's principal activities are centered around:

• Organising conferences, symposia and workshops
• Material derived from conferences as well as specially produced work published through both commercial publishers and an in-house series of DARG Monographs
• Newsletter produced in spring and autumn each year
• Research register of members' specialist interests
• Competitive annual awards for the best undergraduate dissertation on relevant topics and the best paper delivered by a postgraduate at the annual conference
• Supporting postgraduates via an annual award towards field expenses for those giving papers at DARG conferences

Until recently, this meant an almost exclusive focus on countries of the ‘Third World’, but with the dramatic global politico-economic changes since the late 1980s it is recognised that many parts of eastern Europe and central Asia are experiencing similar conditions and development problems.

The research of the majority of DARG members nonetheless focuses on the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

DARG has recently published a new undergraduate dissertation guide: Doing Development/Global South Dissertations: A Guide for Undergraduates (PDF)

Read more about news and activities on the DARG website.

David W. Smith Memorial Prize 2012, supported by Routledge Publishers

The Developing Areas Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) annual essay competition in memory of David W. Smith.

David W Smith, who also published under the name of David Drakakis Smith, was an outstanding scholar committed to research on Third World cities. He died in 1999.

A2 level students in England and Wales and Advanced Higher students in Scotland are invited to write an essay of up to 1500 words on a different topic each year.  The essay prize is £100 (cheque) from Routledge Publishers.

Essay topic:

Discuss the view that “in many cities in developing countries, hunger and malnutrition are common amongst the poor, even when food is relatively abundant."  D W Smith 1997

Submit either hard copy or electronic copy of your essay to:

• Gill Miller (g.miller@chester.ac.uk), David W Smith Memorial Prize, Department of Geography and Development Studies, University of Chester College, Parkgate Road, Chester CH1 4BJ.