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Dirty Secrets of Nuclear Power in an Era of Climate Change
by Doug Brugge Aaron DatesmanThis open access book provides a review of the serious limitations and drawbacks to nuclear power, and clearly conveys why nuclear power is a less than desirable option in terms of addressing climate change. It uses accessible and engaging language to help bring an understanding of the issues with nuclear power to a broader sector of the public, with the intention of appealing to non-scientists seeking knowledge on the disadvantages of nuclear power as a solution for climate change. The argument is made that while superficially appealing, nuclear power is too costly, fragile, and slow to implement, compared to alternative options such as wind and solar. “As this book shows, to nowadays hold on to Nuclear Energy, a risky and extremely expensive method of create power, just does not make sense any longer.” -- Prof. (em.) Andreas Nidecker, MD, retired academic radiologist, Basel, Switzerland “Datesman and Brugge present evidence that nuclear power is an insecure and unsecureable technology, inherently incompatible with humanity and democracy; it fuels nuclear weapons technology and possession; choosing it would damage our chances at mitigating the climate crisis.” -- Cindy Folkers, MS, Radiation & Health Specialist, Beyond Nuclear “Although the government, industrial, and scientific nexus say it is safe.…I can only think of one word in Navajo "Ina'adlo'" meaning manipulation by the power that be to say it is safe. My Navajo people are dying from the uranium exposure on their health and environment. Great account of information on studies that have taken place around the world to say uranium is not good.” – Esther Yazzie, Navajo Interpreter and knowledge holder on Navajo issues. “At a time when there is a call to triple the growth of nuclear power, Datesman and Brugge provide a timely and thorough examination of the dark-side of “romancing” the atom. With solid technical astuteness, they cover a wide field littered with unsolved and dangerous problems ranging from the poisoning of people and the environment to the failed economics, to the spread of nuclear weapons ….they point out how science and public trust have been corrupted by the lure of unfettered nuclear growth.” –Robert Alvarez, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.
The Dirty Side of the Garment Industry: Fast Fashion and Its Negative Impact on Environment and Society
by Nikolay AnguelovWhen thinking about lowering or changing consumption to lower carbon footprints, the obvious offenders come easily to mind: petroleum and petroleum products, paper and plastic, even food. But not clothes. Although the clothing industry is the second largest polluter after agriculture, most consumers do not think of clothes as a source of environmen
Dirty Tricks: British Airways' Secret War Against Virgin Atlantic
by Martyn GregoryRichard Branson's Virgin Atlantic was valued at over £1.2 billion when he sold a 49% stake to Singapore Airlines in 1999. This was an extraordinary achievement for an airline that began life in 1984 with one plane. Virgin Atlantic became one of the world's top airlines only after surviving an incredible dirty tricks campaign by British Airways. Award Winning investigative jounalist Martyn Gregory exposed BA's secret war, and he reveals the full story in Dirty Tricks.
Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America
by Eyal PressDrone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the "kill floors" of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of the United States' most violent and abusive prisons. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society's most ethically troubling jobs. As Press shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn unprecedented attention to essential workers, and to the health and safety risks to which workers in prisons and slaughterhouses are exposed. But Dirty Work examines a less familiar set of occupational hazards: psychological and emotional hardships such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color. Illuminating the moving, sometimes harrowing stories of the people doing society's dirty work, and incisively examining the structures of power and complicity that shape their lives, Press reveals fundamental truths about the moral dimensions of work and the hidden costs of inequality in America. EYAL PRESS is an author and a journalist based in New York. The recipient of a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, an Andrew Carnegie fellowship, a Cullman Center fellowship at the New York Public Library, and a Puffin Foundation fellowship at Type Media Center, he is a contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Times, and numerous other publications. He is the author of Beautiful Souls and Absolute Convictions.
Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America
by Eyal PressA groundbreaking, urgent report from the front lines of "dirty work"—the work that society considers essential but morally compromised.Drone pilots who carry out targeted assassinations. Undocumented immigrants who man the “kill floors” of industrial slaughterhouses. Guards who patrol the wards of the United States’ most violent and abusive prisons. In Dirty Work, Eyal Press offers a paradigm-shifting view of the moral landscape of contemporary America through the stories of people who perform society’s most ethically troubling jobs. As Press shows, we are increasingly shielded and distanced from an array of morally questionable activities that other, less privileged people perform in our name.The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn unprecedented attention to essential workers, and to the health and safety risks to which workers in prisons and slaughterhouses are exposed. But Dirty Work examines a less familiar set of occupational hazards: psychological and emotional hardships such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury. These burdens fall disproportionately on low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color.Illuminating the moving, sometimes harrowing stories of the people doing society’s dirty work, and incisively examining the structures of power and complicity that shape their lives, Press reveals fundamental truths about the moral dimensions of work and the hidden costs of inequality in America.
Dirty Work
by Ruth Simpson Natasha Slutskaya Patricia Lewis Heather H�pflThis book explores understandings and experiences of 'dirty work' - tasks or occupations that are seen as disgusting and degrading. It complicates the 'clean/dirty' divide in the context of organizations and work and illustrates some of the complex ways in which dirty work identities are managed.
Dis/organization as Communication: Exploring the Disordering, Disruptive and Chaotic Properties of Communication (Routledge Studies in Communication, Organization, and Organizing)
by Consuelo Vásquez Timothy KuhnThis book accounts for the transformation of organizations in a post-bureaucratic era by bringing a communicational lens to the ontological discussion on organization/disorganization, offering a conceptual and methodological toolbox for studying dis/organization as communication. Increasingly, scholars acknowledge that communication is constitutive of organization; because meaning is always indeterminate, communication also (and simultaneously) generates disorganization. The book synthesizes the major theoretical trends and empirical studies in communication that engage with dis/organization. Drawing on dialectics, relational ontologies, critical theory, systems theory, and affect thinking, the first part of the book offers communicational explanations of how dis/organization unfolds. The second part of the book grounds this theoretical reflection, providing empirical studies that mobilize diverse methodological and analytical frameworks (e.g., ethnography, situational, interactional and genre analysis) for studying the practices of dis/organization. Overall, the book exposes organizations (and organizing processes) as significantly messier, irrational (or a-rational), and paradoxical than scholars of organization typically think. It also offers readers the conceptual and methodological tools to understand these complex processes as communication. This book will be essential reading for scholars in organizational communication or management and organization studies, together with senior undergraduate and graduate students studying organizational communication, organizational discourse, discourse analysis (including rhetoric, semiotics, pragmatism, narratology) and courses in management studies. It will also be richly rewarding for organizational consultants, managers and executives.
Disabilities/Different Abilities
by Paula Reuben VieilletThis is a hands-on workbook which will help the job hunter who has a disability secure employment. Step by step, this manual guides the job hunter through the vocational process in an honest and positive manner so as to get results. It is designed for individual usage, or in conjunction with a trained professional. The first section, Getting to Know You, addresses self-esteem, personal values and job goal definition and includes motivational strategy. The second section, Facing Workplace Discrimination, reviews application and interviewing functions with a focus on eliminating discrimination in the hiring process. Typical concerns of job hunters are answered in a straightforward and informative manner. The third section, Ready, Set, Go, deals with feelings and concerns regarding returning to work and includes a handy reference guide of available resources for job hunters with disabilities.
Disability and Employer Practices: Research across the Disciplines
by Susanne M. BruyèreThis book is about the employment of people with disabilities in the United States and the important role of employer practices. Nearly one in five people report some form of disability, and they are only half as likely to be employed as those without disabilities. With the aging workforce and returning military veterans both contributing to increasing number of disabilities in the workplace, there is an urgent need for better ways to address continuing employment disparities for people with disabilities. Examining employer behaviors is critical to changing this trend. It is essential to understand the factors that motivate employers to engage this workforce and which specific practices are most effective. Disability and Employer Practices features research-based documentation of workplace policies and practices that result in the successful recruitment, retention, advancement, and inclusion of individuals with disabilities. The Cornell team whose work is featured in this book drew from multiple disciplines, data sources, and methodologies to learn where employment disparities for people with disabilities occur and to identify workplace policies and practices that might remediate them. The contributors include individuals with expertise in the fields of business, economics, education, environmental design and analysis, human resources, management, industrial/organizational psychology, public health, rehabilitation psychology, research methods, survey design, educational measurement, statistics, and vocational rehabilitation counseling. Contributors Linda Barrington, Institute for Compensation Studies, ILR School, Cornell University Susanne M. Bruyère, K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Cornell University Hassan Enayati, K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Cornell University William A. Erickson, K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Cornell University Kevin Hallock, Institute for Compensation Studies, ILR School, Cornell University Arun Karpur, K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Cornell University Lisa Nishii, Human Resource Studies, ILR School, Cornell University Ellice Switzer, K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Cornell University Sarah von Schrader, K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Cornell University Sara Van Looy, K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Cornell University
Disability and Employment: Towards a Humanistic Economy
by Fumitaka FuruokaThis book offers new knowledge on the intricate interplay between employment and disability. It provides a timely scholarly deliberation and presents policy solutions to tackle the persistently high unemployment among people with disabilities. This critical issue in the labour market obstructs fostering inclusive economic growth by ensuring employment opportunities for all under Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals. This insightful work dissects how negative stereotypes of people with disabilities in the labour market are perpetuated and highlights knowledge gaps in the available literature on the disability‒employment relationship. It offers a systematic empirical analysis of the patterns of the unemployment rate of people with disabilities and its convergence, and it examines the determinants of the unemployment gap between people with and without disabilities. Theoretical deliberations are presented regarding the effectiveness of labour market interventions designed to solve this issue. By exploring the concept of disability and offering empirical analysis and labour market solutions, this book serves as a valuable resource for policymakers, advocates, and anyone committed to achieving more inclusive economic growth and moving towards a more humanistic economy.
Disability and Poverty in the Global South: Renegotiating Development In Guatemala (Palgrave Studies in Disability and International Development)
by Shaun GrechDisability and Poverty in the Global South
Disability and Shopping: Customers, Markets and the State (Routledge Advances in Disability Studies)
by Ieva EskytėDisability and Shopping:Customers, Markets and the State provides an examination of the diverse experiences and perspectives of disabled customers, industry and civil society. It discusses how the interaction between the three stakeholders should be shaped at aiming to decrease inequality and marginalisation. Shopping is a part of everyday modern life and yet businesses struggle to adequately meet the needs of 80 million disabled customers in the European Union single market. While there has been extensive research into how individuals engage in customer roles and experience, and how businesses and policies both shape and respond to these, little is known of the same dynamics and practices regarding people with impairments. This book addresses this need by revealing the perspectives, interactions and experiences of disabled customers and their interaction with policy and business. It will be required reading for all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, marketing and customer relations.
Disability and Social Exclusion in Rural India
by Insa KlasingIndia is home to a population of 50 million disabled people, the worlds largest outside China. Although 80 per cent of disabled people in India live in rural areas, the government and NGOs direct their activity almost exclusively towards urban centres, and little research has been conducted in rural communities where the incidence of disability is greatest. This book sheds new light on the marginalisation of disabled people in rural India. It exposes the barriers that exclude disabled people from participation in education, livelihoods, social life and medical care. Comprehensive chapters describe each aspect of exclusion in turn, explaining the barriers to participation and evaluating the governments policy and programmatic response. Each chapter ends with recommendations for government policy and an agenda for NGO intervention. This study finds that social exclusion defines the experience of being disabled in rural India at least as much as disability itself.
Disability as Diversity: A Guidebook for Inclusion in Medicine, Nursing, and the Health Professions
by Leslie Neal-Boylan Lisa M. MeeksAdministrators and faculty in medical, nursing and health science programs are witnessing a substantial increase in the number of students with disabilities entering their programs. Concurrently, the benefits of diversity in healthcare are becoming increasingly apparent and important. Provider-patient concordance is a known mechanism for reducing health care disparities. By developing a workforce that mirrors the patient population, we can appropriately inform disability care, reducing health care disparities while embracing the tenets of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), namely equal opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for qualified individuals with disabilities. One in five individuals will experience disability at some point in their lives, making this the largest minority in the US. A commitment to disability inclusion for qualified students should be a high-level goal of nursing, medical, and other health science programs. To support this goal, leaders in these areas must develop robust programs and an understanding of the best practices for inclusion. This first-of-its-kind title is designed to help deans, program directors, faculty, student affairs personnel and disability resource professionals thoughtfully plan for the growing population of health-care professionals with disabilities. The content helps stakeholders contextualize disability inclusion in health-care education as a function of social justice and a mechanism of reducing health care disparities for patients. It offers pragmatic advice, grounded in research, best practice, and case law to address the highly nuanced approach to determining and implementing accommodations in a high-stakes clinical environment. Disability as Diversity connects the moving parts necessary to ensure equal access for qualified students and provides a blueprint for crafting policy, proactive messaging, improving climate, adhering to accreditation standards, addressing licensing and board exams, responding to student failure, all while remaining compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and applicable Federal regulations. This text provides educators with the perspectives and skills they need to bring disability inclusion to the forefront of health education.
Disability Benefits, Welfare Reform and Employment Policy
by Colin Lindsay Donald HoustonThis book aims to tackle the issues that are central to understanding and addressing one of the most important employment policy problems facing governments in the UK and beyond: the high number of people of working age claiming 'disability' or 'incapacity' benefits.
Disability Friendly: How to Move from Clueless to Inclusive
by John D. KempCreate a true culture of inclusion Although progress has been made around equality for many marginalized groups, people with disabilities are still massively underrepresented in organizations&’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. People with disabilities make up at least 15% of the population, yet they are still too often overlooked. Many people with disabilities are highly motivated, create fantastic work, and add tremendous value to organizations. Disability Friendly is a clarion call to businesses around the world to realize the opportunities presented by employing people with disabilities. It explains the potential of disabled employees, how to create a culture of inclusion, and, in the process, help people with disabilities become proud contributors. In this book, you&’ll find: Concrete strategies for redesigning work and its processes to embrace all contributing citizens Ways to incorporate disability supports into a business&’ diversity and inclusion practices and initiatives Methods for reducing the massive cost associated with government disability support payments and repurpose these as investments in the human potential of people with disabilities Ideal for executives, managers, and other business leaders, Disability Friendly will also earn a place in the libraries of Diversity and Inclusion and Human Resources professionals seeking to make an impact on their company and on behalf of a marginalized group.
Disability in the Global South
by Shaun Grech Karen SoldaticThis first-of-its kind volume spans the breadth of disability research and practice specifically focusing on the global South. Established and emerging scholars alongside advocates adopt a critical and interdisciplinary stance to probe, challenge and shift common held social understandings of disability in established discourses, epistemologies and practices, including those in prominent areas such as global health, disability studies and international development. Motivated by decolonizing approaches, contributors carefully weave the lived and embodied experiences of disabled people, families and communities through contextual, cultural, spatial, racial, economic, identity and geopolitical complexities and heterogeneities. Dispatches from Ghana, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Venezuela among many others spotlight the complex uncertainties of modern geopolitics of coloniality; emergent forms of governance including neoliberal globalization, war and conflicts; the interstices of gender, race, ethnicity, space and religion; structural barriers to redistribution and realization of rights; and processes of disability representation. This handbook examines in rigorous depth, established practices and discourses in disability including those on development, rights, policies and practices, opening a space for critical debate on hegemonic and often unquestioned terrains. Highlights of the coverage include: Critical issues in conceptualizing disability across cultures The challenges of disability statistics. Colonialism and disability Disability and poverty: critical renegotiations Livelihoods and disability: the complexities of labouring in the global South. Intersectional terrains, including migration, race, ethnicity, and customary embodiedness Disability and Religion Violence against disabled women in the global South: working locally, acting globally. Disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction The UNCRPD and critical orientations towards disability rights within various contextual settings Redistribution systems including disability inclusive budgeting, social security regimes and social policy measures Global South-North partnerships: intercultural methodologies in disability research. This much awaited handbook provides students, academics, practitioners and policymakers with an authoritative framework for critical thinking and debate about disability, while pushing theoretical and practical frontiers in unprecedented ways.
Disability in the Workplace: The Politics of Difference (Routledge Studies in Employment and Work Relations in Context)
by Jonathon S. Breen Susan J. ForwellThis book introduces the difference model of disability. Framed within an affect-based understanding of the relationships between those living with impairments and others, this new model offers a reconsideration of the construct of disability itself. Disability is flexible, relational, and perceived through an acognitive lens. At a practice level, the difference model offers a framework for creating more positive and successful relationships between people with disabilities (PWDs) and others within the workplace. This includes two new tools, the Co-Worker Acceptance of Disabled Employees (CADE) Scale and the Perceived Barriers to Employing Persons with Disabilities (PBED) Scale. Designed to measure workplace attitudes, and changes to these attitudes, each of these scales provides empirical evidence in support of strategic planning and, ultimately, an increased representation of PWDs. Finally, this book considers the effects of language and technology on workplace attitudes toward disability.
Disability in the Workplace: A Caribbean Perspective (Palgrave Explorations in Workplace Stigma)
by Jacqueline H. Stephenson Natalie PersadieThis work critically examines diversity, discrimination, and inclusion in the English-speaking Caribbean nations, with a specific emphasis on persons with disabilities. The chapters include an evaluative analysis on the extant theoretical and empirical literature on persons with disabilities in employment, exploring the nature of their disability, the role of information technology in gaining and retaining employment, and an analysis of the laws and relevant policies which prohibit the discrimination against persons with disabilities in the Caribbean region. Though the enactment of legislation outlawing the discrimination of persons with disabilities is not widespread in the Caribbean, a few select territories have taken positive steps towards recognition of the need to achieve inclusion of persons with disabilities and accept the diversity of the Caribbean populace.After exploring the general state of disability and discrimination in the Caribbean region, the authors analyze workplace accommodations provided to persons with disability, particularly as relations to IT and assistive devices, before focusing on workplace stigmas related to mental health disability and employment law.In addition to literature-based analyses, the book includes qualitative case studies, with the goal of providing benchmarks in organizational responses to employees with disabilities. Further, the authors highlight lessons to be learned from other countries in addressing inequality in the workplace for disabled persons.With its analysis of employment as well as socio-economic and legal issues, this interdisciplinary text will serve as a useful resource in not only understanding the organizational challenges faced by persons with disabilities in the region but also the necessary legislation needed to address discriminatory practices on a wider scale.
Disability Management: Eine Einführung in die partizipative Arbeitswelt (essentials)
by Anne RoskenDisability Management orientiert sich an den Stärken eines Mitarbeiters. Es setzt sich für eine gleichberechtigte partizipative Eingliederung und Inklusion möglichst vieler Menschen in die Arbeitswelt ein; losgelöst von bekannten Differenzkategorien wie Alter, Beeinträchtigung. Es fußt auf den Grundlagen der UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention. Aufgrund aktueller gesellschaftlicher Entwicklungen ist Disability Management ein neues, sehr relevantes, brisantes und aktuelles Thema im Human Resource Management.Mit einem Gastbeitrag von Donal McAnaney
Disability Management and Workplace Integration: International Research Findings
by Henry G. HarderDisability Management is perceived and understood to be an important approach to reducing the negative impact, for workers and the company, of absence due to illness and accidents, and to assisting those with disabilities to enter or re-enter the workplace. Disability Management has already become established in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. Recently European countries have begun to promote the approach in order to reduce illness related expenses and avoid unemployment, early retirement and costs to the welfare state. In Disability Management and Workplace Integration leading researchers from around the World consider the development of Disability Management over the last three decades. They examine the on-going debate about methodology and implementation of disability management strategies and programmes, highlighting the critical debate about the implications of a stricter cost-benefit approach to Disability Management theory and practice. Professionals involved in workplace integration, researchers approaching workplace integration from a variety of perspectives such as sociology; rehabilitative medicine; psychology; education; social policy; and economics, and students on a range of courses, will appreciate this valuable book.
Disability Politics in a Global Economy: Essays in Honour of Marta Russell
by Ravi MalhotraWhile the visibility of disability studies has increased in recent years, few have thoroughly examined the marginalization of people with disabilities through the lens of political economy. This was the great contribution of Marta Russell (1951-2013), an activist and prominent scholar in the United States and best known for her analyses of the issues faced by people with disabilities. This book examines the legacy of Marta Russell, bringing together distinguished scholars and activists such as Anne Finger, Nirmala Erevelles and Mark Weber, to explicate current issues relevant to the empowerment of people with disabilities. Drawing from various fields including Law, Political Economy, Education and History, the book takes a truly interdisciplinary approach, offering a body of work that develops a dextrous understanding of the marginalization of people with disabilities. The book will be of great use and interest to specialists and students in the fields of Political Economy, Law and Society, Labour Studies, Disability Studies, Women’s Studies, and Political Science.
Disadvantaged Childhoods and Humanitarian Intervention: Processes of Affective Commodification and Objectification (Palgrave Studies on Children and Development)
by Aviva Sinervo Kristen CheneyThis book explores how humanitarian interventions for children in difficult circumstances engage in affective commodification of disadvantaged childhoods. The chapters consider how transnational charitable industries are created and mobilized around childhood need—highlighting children in situations of war and poverty, and with indeterminate access to health and education—to redirect global resource flows and sentiments in order to address concerns of child suffering. The authors discuss examples from around the world to show how, as much as these processes can help achieve the goals of aid organizations, such practices can also perpetuate the conditions that organizations seek to alleviate and thereby endanger the very children they intend to help.
Disadvantaged Minorities in Business (Contributions to Management Science)
by Léo-Paul Dana Nada Khachlouf Adnane Maâlaoui Vanessa RattenThis book features contributions by international scholars who have worked to establish a theory- and empirics-based discussion on disadvantaged minorities and long-term economic development. Depending on their socio-demographic characteristics, minorities have long lived under the shadow of the groups, categories, or communities they presumably belong to. Despite the obstacles they have to face, they manage to demonstrate that, above all, they are entrepreneurs capable to start, run, and successfully complete their venture. Their motivations are often assimilated by the research community into “necessity entrepreneurship.” In addition to the external barriers they face, they have to overcome endogenous cognitive factors that hinder their entrepreneurial intention: anxiety before the future, the anguish of death, generativity, health condition as perceived by others, subjective age, and the cultural gap as viewed by natives, among others. The book integrates a diversity of challenges and disadvantages faced by entrepreneurs, allowing the reader to have a renewed understanding of entrepreneurial behavior. On the theoretical level, the chapters emphasize the need for integrating entrepreneurship theory with multidisciplinary approaches, such as the Theory of Cumulative Disadvantage/Advantage (CDA), cultural and geographical theories, and psychological theories. On the practical level, this book would raise the awareness of policy makers, mainly governmental and nongovernmental organizations concerning the disadvantages, and helping them adjust their actions either for local or international programs.Chapter "Intersectionality and Minority Entrepreneurship: At the Crossroad of Vulnerability and Power" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Disadvantaged Workers
by Miguel Ángel Malo Dario SciulliThis book includes empirical contributions focusing on disadvantaged workers. According to the European Commission's definition, disadvantaged workers include categories of workers with difficulties entering the labour market without assistance and hence, requiring the application of public measures aimed at improving their employment opportunities. In addition to the labour market perspective, this is also relevant in terms of social cohesion, which is one of the central objectives of the European Union and of its Member States. This work deals with the most relevant groups of disadvantaged workers, namely disabled workers, young workers, women living in depressed areas, migrants in the labour market and the long-term unemployed, and analyses the situation in the Italian, Spanish and some African labour markets. The determinants of disadvantage in the labour market are investigated, highlighting both the role of supply variables, including structural factors and the weakness on the demand side, the role of the economic crisis and the ineffectiveness of some labour policies. A complex framework emerges in which disadvantaged groups may share common problems, both in terms of integration into the labour market and in terms of working conditions, but often require group-specific policies, taking into account their intergroup heterogeneity.