Reflections on the Fourth National Development Research Conference, the Role of African Studies and Problems of Documentation

Extract

The 4th NDRC was held at Strathclyde University on September 26-29, 1978, and attracted some 200 participants from Britain and overseas. As such, it was probably the largest and most widely representative of these biennial meetings to date, providing a stimulating forum for discussion and exchange of ideas on a wide variety of topics. The range of seminars covered such traditional fields as health, labour, rural and regional development, technology, multinationals, teaching development studies; newer topics included science, socialist development models, historical dimensions, nature of development studies, information and information activities. The following brief analysis is not intended to be a summary of the Conference but rather to highlight certain trends which, to a librarian and Africanist, warrant fuller consideration by developmentalists, Africanists and documentalists.