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INTERDISCIPLINARY INVOLVEMENT AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PEOPLE. R. MANSELL PROTHERO Prothero, R. Mansell 1986: Interdisciplinary Involvement and The Importance of People. Cambria, Vol. 13(1), pp. 63 to pp. 77. Part III of Davies, W.K.D. (ed) Human Geography from Wales: Proceedings of the E.G.Bowen Memorial Conference. ISSN 0306-9796. A review of the need for people orientated and interdisciplinary work in dealing with the problems of underdeveloped countries, particularly those of growth and migration. The need to understand the personal situations of migrants is stressed as is the way in which migration is often linked to the spread of diseases such as malaria. It is concluded that it is not enough to plan for people, it is essential to plan with them. R. Mansell Prothero, Dept. of Geography, University of Liverpool, P.O. Box 147, Liverpool, England, L69 3BX. A Personal Introduction Since this is an occasion for rememberance I have felt that it would be appropriate to approach it in a personal manner. My paper outlines some of the work associated with two major themes in my academic career interdisciplinary involvement and the importance of people. The first does not require any explanation. The second is significant in two senses as involving a major concern in teaching and research, but also because individual persons have in a variety of ways contributed to the development of this concern, and also to a markedly interdisciplinary involvement. For me it is remarkable how the influence of people, and also of events, has over time contributed, largely in a fortuitous fashion, to what seems to have pattern and coherence. There has been a strong element of serendipity unexpected and pleasant things occurring by accident not so much through my own sagacity for achieving this but rather through this quality in those with whom I have been fortunate to be associated. Originating in the Highland Zone I am conscious of tradition and continuity, are not all of us who sat at the feet of EGB whether in 11 Marine Terrace (as I did) or on the moorlands of mid-Wales? This brought a consciousness of the long-established interdiciplinary tradition of the Department, originating with Fleure and further developed by Daryll Forde and by E.G. Bowen (EGB). His course on the 'History of Early Civilizations' moved me for some time towards Archaeology, and his concern for people,