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The following article by Professor Brian Wharf is based on programs operating in the USA. There are some signs of placement prevention programs being embraced by government bodies and non-government child welfare agencies in Australia and in Canada. His experience of developments in Australia, during a recent visit, prompted him to put forward this article for publication in Children Australia. There appears to be a remarkable similarity of interests between child welfare issues in Australia and Canada, particularly round the question of whether protection and prevention services should be integrated or provided by separate agencies or departments. Children Australia hopes this will be the first in a series of exchanges between Australia and Canada.

The year 1989 will in future generations be known as the annus mirabilis, not only as far as developments in Eastern Europe are concerned, but also within the context of South African politics. The September general elections for the tricameral Parliament marked a turning point in the direction of governmental policies. Nowhere has the changing mood been more clearly demonstrated than in the streets of the cities and towns. A countrywide spate of protest marches has occurred since the historic first government-approved peaceful anti-apartheid march in Cape Town on 13 September 1989, and these have become the most visible symptom of the advance to the so-called 'new South Africa'.

An anthropometric description was developed for the fetal region of women at three, six, and nine months of pregnancy. This involved superimposing a fetal ellipse on abdominal and pelvic ellipses of seated women from a previous study. The data were developed for women of 5th, 50th, and 95th percentile size. The ellipses identify body contact zones on the side and front which would interact with the fetal region in a crash. The new information provides spatial characteristics of pregnant women for the development of test dummies, accommodating restraints, and friendly interiors and for enhancing crash protection. This research addresses the 342 deaths of pregnant women estimated to occur annually in motor vehicle crashes.

Abstract The meaning of rurality from the person‐on‐the‐street perspective was explored using data from a statewide telephone and mail survey of 1,241 Pennsylvania residents. Responses to 35 Likert items were factor analyzed and five factors were delineated: positive images of rural life, negative images of rurality, antiurbanism, agrarianism, and wilderness values. Widespread agreement with the positive images of rural life, antiurbanism, agrarianism, and wilderness values was found. Negative images of rurality were overwhelmingly rejected by the respondents. Rural dwellers were somewhat more positive in their attitudes toward all aspects of rurality than were urban or suburban residents. The relevance of these overall findings for rural development is suggested.

Since the late 1960s, the political aspect of planned organizational change has received considerable attention. But despite the increasing acceptance of the fact that organizational change is inextricably linked with organizational politics, organization development (OD) professionals have continued to be cautious in grappling with the political realities involved in the implementation of planned organizational change. This article conceptualizes planned organizational change as a continuum of relationships with three degrees or levels of change. A sequential approach to the political involvement of OD professionals has been developed and an analytical framework has been presented that calls for matching degrees of political involvement to the level of change desired.

An attempt was made to replicate previous successful efforts to construct three subscales measuring different facets of work autonomy. Compared to previous attempts, where cross-occupational samples were taken, the present study drew from a relatively homogeneous sample of dental hygienists (n = 89). Factor analysis failed to replicate the three distinct subscales. Rather, one single nine-item measure of autonomy was formed which, for construct and divergent validity purposes, was predictably associated with variables with which theoretically it should be associated, and was predictably not associated with variables with which theoretically it should not be associated. Implications for the further development of a multidimensional measurement of work autonomy are discussed.

The perceptions of 21 nonhandicapped high school students were investigated in regard to the benefits they had experienced as a result of developing relationships with peers who had moderate or severe disabilities. Semi-structured interviews with the nonhandicapped students indicated their experiences resulted in six types of benefits: (a) improvements in self-concept, (b) growth in social cognition, (c) increased tolerance of other people, (d) reduced fear of human differences, (e) development of personal principles, and (f) interpersonal acceptance and friendship. Students also identified areas of difficulty they had experienced in their relationships with peers having disabilities. Results are discussed in terms of implications for policy analysis and research on social integration.

The progressive housing policies of populist Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn are described and analyzed in this article. Flynn's progressive housing policies are contrasted with those of his liberal predecessor, Kevin White. Boston's housing crisis and politics are described. The authors argue that Flynn's progressive housing policies have resulted in better housing conditions for Boston's poor and working-class citizenry, advocacy of progressive housing policies, empowerment of tenant and neighborhood organizations, and development of a nationally recognized model of nonprofit housing. Nevertheless, the authors argue that no city government by itself can solve a city's housing problems equitably without much greater federal assistance than is provided currently.

Abstract
According to the view of Peter Singer, only persons deserve a right to life. As a consequence, a human being can claim such a right only at a certain point of its postnatal development and there is no essential moral difference between infanticide and abortion. Against this view, it is argued that - even on the basis of personhood as the fundamental criterion - there are convincing pragmatical reasons for attributing a right to life in social practice at the point of birth. It is also shown how this position can be combined with a morally satisfactory position on the important problem of the treatment of infants who are severely handicapped.

Charting the historical paths to democracy has been a long-standing concern of political sociology.1With the demise of authoritarian rule in Latin America over the last decade, a classic question of the genre has resurfaced: are there certain developmental sequences that are more likely to produce successful transitions to democracy? If there is any conclusion to be drawn from recent experiences, the answer is no. Highly heterogeneous circumstances have produced Latin America's most recent wave of democratisation. From the Caribbean to the Southern Cone, countries at different levels of economic development, with distinctive authoritarian legacies and divergent class structures, all underwent transitions to elected civilian governments in the last decade.

This article reports on four and a half years of participant observation in two self-help associations, a Gray Panthers group and a Parents Circle of Young Drug Abusers. As the first step of our analysis, we developed a classification system for the activities of these groups (self-maintenance, mutual aid, socializing, voluntary work, and lobbying). This helped us to identify and characterize five developmental stages (solidarization, orienta tion, stabilization, differentiation, and institutionalization of one or more activity areas). We describe the development of the two groups and their transformation over time, suggest some hypotheses for further research, and discuss some implications of the results.

SummaryAustralia is facing major economic problems. The overseas debt is uncomfortably high and we, like other countries, are having to face up to problems associated with the ageing of our population.To overcome these problems we need to save through superannuation and otherwise. Furthermore, we need to encourage further development of overseas operations by Australian companies and remove existing constraints.Taxation plays an important role. A consumption tax/income tax trade‐off warrants thorough investigation. The benefits appear significant.We should avoid unnecessary restrictions on business activities as complexities lead to inefficiencies. We should seek to clarify and hopefully simplify the taxation code; a major review of the Income Tax Assessment Act would seem in order.

One of the most resilient ideas introduced to the analysis of economic and political change under colonialism and imperialism is the "comprador" and, by extension, the "comprador bourgeoisie." The comprador in essence embodies or internalizes the basic theoretical problem of the peripheral political economy: economic activity oriented primarily for the benefit of the other.1By strict definition, compradors are native agents or partners of foreign investors who operate in some form in the local economy. However, in the theoretical context of assessing the possibilities for local industrial development, compradors represent forces that hinder change. As "agents of foreign imperialism," they act "against the interest of the national economy."2

This paper outlines the principles underlying the Australian AIDS strategy and offers an explanation for its success in reducing the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among homosexual and bisexual men in Australia's gay communities. A brief outline of the AIDS education activities offered by the gay‐community AIDS organisations is followed by results from the Social Aspects of the Prevention of AIDS (SAPA) research project based at Macquarie University. This research confirms the importance of the community‐intervention strategies utilised by gay AIDS organisations. The paper then assesses progress in the development of community‐attachment strategies for men who have sex with men but who are not attached to organised gay communities.

This study suggests that argument as a language game in group interaction can be analyzed, using a discourse-analytic approach, to inform small group scholars about the relationship between influence and decision outcomes. To accomplish its purpose, the study analyzes a decision-making episode in an organizational group and focuses upon one specific speech act, the proposal. As a speech act, the proposal is central to the decision-making quality of the group in that it entails the structural expansion necessary for consensus-seeking discussion. The article shows how the development of the proposal in group interaction can satisfy the requirements for effective group decisions as outlined by Hirokawa (1988).