Self-help Housing and Co-operation in Post-war Australia
Australia experienced a self-help housing boom after World War Two which played an important part in overcoming a serious housing shortage. This paper looks at the magnitude of the boom and at the factors which made it possible. It argues that the basic factor motivating amateur builders was the absolute scarcity of accommodation rather than its high cost. There were significant regional variations in the extent of self-help activity. These are best explained by the extent of public housing provision. Where state governments invested heavily in public housing there was less self-help activity. The paper also traces the sources of finance used by owner-builders and the extent of co-operation amongst them.
This article examines which public programmes and which socio-economic development indicators have had an impact on contraceptive practices and fertility in a selected group of villages in Comilla district of Bangladesh. It finds that equitable even-handed development may be a good contraceptive but is not a realistic alternative to family planning effort....This research undertaken in 1985 replicates a similar knowledge attitudes and practice (KAP) type study undertaken in these same villages some 20 years earlier in 1967/68....Thus the two studies provide a unique look at demographic behavioural characteristics when these agricultural development programmes were in an early stage and then 20 years later. (EXCERPT)