Towards solidarity: working relations in personal assistance

Personal wayfinding assistance

We are traveling many different routes every day. In familiar environments it is easy for us to find our ways. We know our way from bedroom to kitchen, from home to work, from parking place to office, and back home at the end of the working day. We have learned these routes in the past and are now able to find our destination without having to think about it. As soon as we want to find a place ...

Structural Balance, Mechanical Solidarity, and Interpersonal Relations

Balance theory, a theoretical system developed by Cartwright and Harary to formalize concepts set forth by Heider, is used with slight modifications to restate fifty-six sociological and social-psychological propositions from the writings of Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee; Coleman; Davis; Durkheim; Festinger; Fiedler; Homans; Katz and Lazarsfeld; Lazarsfeld and Merton; Lipset, Trow, and Colem...

Integration and Multiculturalism: Ways towards Social Solidarity

Towards Active Assistance

Introduction The exploding functionality of current computer-aided engineering (CAE) systems has provided today’s users with a vast, but under-utilized collection of tools and options. For example, MicroStation, a popular CAE system sold by Intergraph, offers more than 1000 commands including 16 ways to construct a line (in different contexts) and 28 ways to manipulate elements using a “fence”....

Personal assistance services as a workplace accommodation.

This paper describes current US trends and practices regarding workplace personal assistance services (PAS) as part of available work accommodation options. Workplace PAS include task-related assistance at work, such as readers, interpreters, help with lifting or reaching, re-assignment of non-essential duties to co-workers, and other help related to performing work tasks; and personal care-rel...