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Purpose.

This seminar is about the place and importance of agriculture and aquaculture in the developing south.  Comments at the AGMs of DARG and RGRG at this year’s RGS-IBG Annual Conference indicated postgraduate students are looking for opportunities to present their work and develop a network with others in this field.  This seminar is intended to create space for postgraduate research students and early years researchers to present their work and network.

In many so-called developing countries, particularly in Asia, rural livelihoods are changing rapidly and agriculture is often only one part of a suite of activities; in parallel the scale of farm–based aquaculture is increasingly rapidly and projected to rise sharply in sub-Saharan Africa. However, many households are still highly dependent on the use of natural resources and much potential exists for the development of both agricultural and aquaculture.  In Africa in particular, the attainment of many millennium development goals is problematic, while population growth and climate change are all predicted to impact negatively.  This event is an opportunity to present work, work in progress, that addresses this field.

Key note speakers will be Prof Dave Little, Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, an expert in rural aquaculture, and an agriculturalist (name to be confirmed).

Registration.

I hope many of you will wish to make a 15 minute presentation, please submit your abstract of 250 words to me, Charles Howie, chowie@rau.ac.uk by 15/1/14.  I will be in touch with you by the end of January. Please register your intention to attend with Karen Rial-Lover Karen.Rial-Lovera@student.rac.ac.uk  by 1^st March 2014.  Karen will supply details of how to reach the University.  The nearest train station is Kemble, if several people all arrive at the same time, around 10am we will try and provide transport to Cirencester.  Alternatively, there is a regular and frequent National Express coaches service from Victoria coach station, via Heathrow central bus station.

Cost

We expect the day to cost £12, inclusive of buffet lunch, teas and coffees. This will be confirmed at the end of January. Looking forward to hearing from lots of you, Charles Howie, Visiting Fellow, RAU. Adviser Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, An Giang University, Vietnam.

International Seminar to be held at The University of the West Indies,

Mona campus, Jamaica, June 24th -27th, 2014 

The Department of Geography & Geology, University of the West Indies, Mona campus, in conjunction with DARG and the Climate Change Research Group, is hosting a Regional Meeting on ‘The Caribbean Region: Adaptation and Resilience to Global Change’ at The UWI Mona campus, Kingston, Jamaica in June 2014. Global change encompasses a multiplicity of interconnected economic, environmental, social and political factors that create vulnerabilities and invoke local responses. For small island developing states like those in the Caribbean region, the impacts of global change are often negative, though positive responses to new economic opportunities created by these changes are not precluded. Vulnerabilities to global change range in scale from national and regional economies, through  terrestrial and marine ecosystems, to communities, households and other social groups..

This is the 6th meeting in the RGS/IBG British-Caribbean Geography Series which, for two decades, has brought researchers periodically together to highlight geographical and related research on Caribbean economic and environmental change. The aim once again is to provide a forum for geographers and researchers in the natural and social sciences to present and discuss their work on the impacts of Global Change on Caribbean people, societies and landscape, modes of coping and adaptation, and strategies for building resilience.

Offers of Papers are invited on the following themes:

• Climate variability and environmental change research in the Caribbean Basin.

• Responding to economic and environmental shocks and stresses in Caribbean urban and rural settings.

• Impacts of environmental and economic shocks and stresses on Caribbeanterrestrial and marine ecosystems.

Offers of papers, with an abstract of not more than 300 words, should be sent by 31 January 2014 to :

• Dr Duncan McGregor (d.mcgregor@rhul.ac.uk) (Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey  TW20 0EX, UK)

Papers which fall outside these themes but are linked to the main theme will also be considered.

A Second Circular, with costings, will be sent out to those expressing an interest in attending, in January 2014.

Essay Competition

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 researching 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 the following title:

Examine the view that levels of inequality are increasing within cities in the Global South.

Essay prize: £100 in book vouchers.

Essays should be word processed, double spaced.

Essays must be received by Friday 28 February 2014 . Please include your name, school and contact details with your essay. Your teacher must confirm that the essay is your own work.

If you would like to acknowledge receipt of your essay please include a stamped addressed envelope.

Submit either hard copy or electronic copy to the address below.

ADDRESS for essays:

Gill Miller

David W Smith Memorial Prize

Department of Geography and Development Studies

University of ChesterCollege

Parkgate Road

Chester CH1 4BJ

g.miller@chester.ac.uk

The Developing Areas Research Group (DARG) of the RGS-IBG invites proposals for DARG-sponsored sessions at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference in London (27 – 29 August 2014). The chair of the 2014 conference is Professor Wendy Larner (University of Bristol) and the theme is ‘Geographies of co-production’.

The deadline for submissions to reach DARG is Monday 9th December 2013. These should be emailed to Glyn Williams (glyn.williams@sheffield.ac.uk).

Please include the session title and abstract (400 words), the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the session convenor(s), and the anticipated format of the session. Convenors will be notified before 20th December whether or not DARG will be able to provide sponsorship for your session. If sponsorship can be provided, then you have until 21 February 2014 to provide the full session details (with all proposed papers and presenters) for final submission to the RGS-IBG. Full instructions and a session proposal form can be found at http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Call+for+sessions+papers+and+posters/Propose+an+organised+session.htm, and the full conference timeline is at http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Timeline.htm.

We look forward to hearing from you – if you have any queries, please contact Glyn Williams (glyn.williams@sheffield.ac.uk) and copy Dorothea Kleine (dorothea.kleine@rhul.ac.uk).