Compound InequaliTIes and Labour market outsiders.

CITILab addresses different dimensions of inequality related to job access and employment opportunities and quality, and analyses how these different dimensions intersect, cumulate, and overlap. By considering the additive nature of inequality, the project acknowledges that it is particularly severe and disadvantageous especially for certain groups. Among others, low skilled working mothers, people with disability and the long-term unemployed (cumulated with other characteristics, such as being over 50, low skilled, or with a migrant background) represent people who tend to be particularly vulnerable in the labour market.

The project advocates that in order to respond to these multiple and sometimes overlapping dimensions of disadvantage, it is necessary to develop a strategy based on integrated and complementary measures, a policy package through which it is possible to respond to compound inequalities.

This involves aligning support tools, such as training, family/care support, individual assistance, income support etc., which is one of the added values of the social investment policy paradigm.

Social investment is a key theoretical paradigm in the academic and political debates on welfare recalibration, new social risks and inequalities in post-industrial and knowledge-based societies. So far social investment research and policy debate have focused mainly on the national level, underestimating the importance of policies and services at the territorial level.

This project aims to address this gap by analysing social investment institutional and governance capacities of cities. We focus on and compare the cities of Milan and Amsterdam. More specifically, here we investigate the policies addressed to three target groups: the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities and low-skilled working women.

CITILab identifies and examines local social investment policies and highlights both innovative practices and local weaknesses. Collected information and insights from research will be shared and discussed with local stakeholders and civil society organisations dealing with labour market disadvantages and marginalization.

We are committed to raising the awareness of policy makers on the importance of complementary policy tools and interventions in areas such as adult learning and training for skill development, employment assistance, care and work-life balance. Furthermore, the project promotes an on-going dialogue between academic research and civil society to foster equal employment opportunities, a more accessible society, and an inclusive transition to an increasingly digitised economy.