About us

The Cardiff Group members are development practitioners, designers and academics from a number of disciplines, from the UK and other countries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. Our first seminar, held in Cardiff, UK, over two days in July 2001, gave us a firm base from which to move forward. We believe that there is a potential and valuable field of action around the twin themes of design and development, which could make a significant contribution to projects in developing countries and low income economies in any part of the globe. The Group aims to become an important influence on policy and decision-makers in development and development contexts.

Click here for a list of the founder members, participating in the first seminar.

We normally meet four times a year, in Cardiff, Salford or London. The usual format is for a morning meeting of a small management group, followed in the afternoon by an open meeting with an invited presentation from a practitioner or researcher in the field of Design and Development. This partly fulfils our aims of exploring the potential for, adding to the body of knowledge of, and advancing critical thinking about design and development.

Some members of the Cardiff Group are also members of the 'Design and Development' Study Group of the Development Studies Association (DSA) whose activities are advertised and reported on the Study Group pages of the DSA website.

The Cardiff Group has received generous support from a number of UK universities, and its website is hosted at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) which is a founding partner of WIRAD – The Wales Institute for Research in Art and Design. The Cardiff Group is a member of WIRAD.