Alternative work scheduling for professional social workers.

The authors present some practical evidence that the changing nature of today's work force requires innovative alternatives to traditional scheduling based on the 9 to 5, five-day workweek. They support alternative work scheduling (AWS) as an updated and promising approach. Described is their experience with a two-year AWS pilot project in the Social Work Service of an urban medical center, with their focus upon the processes of negotiating, programming, and implementing the concepts of "flex-time," "compressed workweek," and "job sharing." Informal assessment indicates strongly positive responses from the participating social workers, other members of the health care team, and the consumers of the services.

Population forecasting and urban planning practice: a case study.

"The present paper is an exploration of the organisational environment that surrounds population forecasting in urban planning practice with reference to a detailed case study of one British planning authority: South Yorkshire." The emphasis is on the dialogue between those who prepare such forecasts and those who use them.

The development of a data base for national population projections in Iraq.

PIP: This paper evaluates available data and makes a number of suggestions regarding the adjustments that need to be made to establish a consistent data base for population projection purposes in Iraq. It provides a detailed illustration for 1 country of the ways in which the problems facing planners in many 3rd world countries can be resolved in practice. The 1st main adjustment involves translating data presented in 1 form into another form to enable it to be used in the population projection. The 2nd type of adjustment is directly concerned with making 1 set of data consistent with another. Vital registration data, for instance, often needs to be reconciled with census data. The fullest possible use is made of available Iraqi data and standard demographic procedures for dealing with incomplete data. For this reason it can be argued that the projections presented in this paper represent an improvement on those earlier studies that relied on indirect sources of data borrowed from UN estimations and the modle life tables. The main findings regarding Iraq's population growth can be summarized: Iraq has high rates of growth at the present time. Based on present trends its 1977 population of 12 million is likely to double by the beginning of the next century. Even if the current level of fertility declines during this period, a marked reduction of current growth rates is unlikely to occur as over the current population is under 20 years of age and these people will be moving into the most fertile age groups between 1977 and 1997.^ieng