Zoekresultaten

Towards an effective workspace design by end-user emancipation

Purpose - This paper aims to identify whether employees’ organisational position affect their perceived quality of the workspace design. By providing possible explanations for the differences and discussing the implications, we aim to establish an effective workspace design process that satisfies different users of the commonly used work environment.Design/methodology/approach – The present paper analyses the results of a national online survey among members of the Board of Directors (n=17), facility managers (n=76), education managers (n=211), and lecturers (n=1,755) of 18 Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences, using Mann-Whitney U tests. Findings – The results show a clear misfit between the perceived quality of workspace design between Board members and facility managers on one hand and education managers and lecturers on the other. This possibly indicates a mismatch between which workspace design the organisation intends to provide and what users may require or expect.Practical implications – Based on the research findings, we propose facility managers should act more closely to the primary process and work to recognize their needs. Therefore, lecturers and education managers as end-users have to become truly emancipated, involving them periodically in workspace design improvement and listening and responding to what they say.Originality/value - This paper finds that the often presupposed support of facility management to the primary process seems rather weak, at least in the perception of end-users, and that facility managers should engage in participatory workspace design with end-users and challengethemselves to be the linking-pin between Board and end-users.

Ermergence and function of Deaf Studies

Due to emancipation process there is need for information on Deaf culture - Is there a Deaf Culture in the Netherlands? - If so what is it? How can we define it? - What are priorities in research? - How best disseminate results in Deaf community? - Lobby for rights of Deaf people (Unesco 1994; UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006)

The transition to adulthood - A shared responsibility

The book presents a critical review of a five year research project which aimed at developing an empowering curriculum for visually impaired teenagers with learning difficulties. Participatory action research, with its focus on emancipation through collective, informed and democratic action, provided the necessary framework to inform, underpin and guide the change process. An important conclusion is that teenage students with multiple disabilities and learning difficulties are capable, when they are allowed, challenged and taught, of advocating for themselves, developing clear views about how they want to live, manage their lives and make informed decisions which best fit their personal needs and objectives.

General Theory Of The Precariat

From the fast-food industry to the sharing economy, precarious work has become the norm in contemporary capitalism, like the anti-globalization movement predicted it would. This book describes how the precariat came into being under neoliberalism and how it has radicalized in response to crisis and austerity. It investigates the political economy of precarity and the historical sociology of the precariat, and discusses movements of precarious youth against oligopoly and oligarchy in Europe, America, and East Asia. Foti covers the three fundamental dates of recent history: the financial crisis of 2008, the political revolutions of 2011, and the national-populist backlash of 2016, to present his class theory of the precariat and the ideology of left-populist movements. Building a theory of capitalist crisis to understand the aftermath of the Great Recession, he outlines political scenarios where the precariat can successfully fight for emancipation, and reverse inequality and environmental destruction. Written by the activist who put precarity on the map of radical thinking, this is the first work proposing a complete theory of the precariat in its actuality and potentiality.

Positioning Social Work in a Socially Sensitive Society.

As a practitioner, a manager and a scientist in social work for 40 years, I am still intrigued by the social work positioning and legitimating processes. Its recognition by users and financiers is often diffuse and its fragmentation sometimes hinders effective interventions. In social work itself, we see a range of positioning processes, most of them either legitimating social work as a promoter of social justice, a supporter of emancipation and anti-oppressive practice, or positioning social work as a therapeutic approach, treating people with socio-psychological and psychiatric disorders. Social work is often promoted as a ‘real’ profession, in need of formal recognition and in need of a precise profile. In this article it will be argued that the core of social work is about supporting people in their social functioning and should position itself in the centre of the post-modern quest: the social-psychological disorientation, the lack of meaning, and the problems of isolation and exclusion. Modern professionalism is not about demarcating and regulating but much more about ‘Entgrenzung’ and openness.

Montessoris perspective on citizenship education