Inclusion and diversity in Public Administration: Where are we and how far are we in the path to an inclusive society?

The main aim of this paper is to preliminarily explore definitions and nuances within the definition of concepts suchas inclusion, diversity, disability, normalization, and to try and highlight how the binary meanings implied into these definitions (i.e. inclusion/exclusion, diversity/conformity, disability/ability) are significant to understand how these are used in management and governance strategies. This will be done mainly by reviewing previous academic contributions, then by pointing at some possible practitioner experiences already studied or indicated as hypothesesin specialized literature concerning Organization Studies. Collecting the possible perspectives about “inclusion and diversity” is instrumental to a “field definition”, and to acknowledge the “state of art” of these concepts within different contexts, such as academic scholarship, private and corporatebusiness, public administration, and ultimately society as a whole. This is part of a larger research project on public administration that aims to investigate whether the “inclusion turn” in open public debate does factually provide a ground for changes in organizational practices, rather than staying on paper as a mere normative scenario that HR departments and lawmakers feel compelled to comply with. Relating this issue to the wider context of society means questioning the effectiveness of inclusion strategies as a systemic effort. The ideal contribution of this paper would be to suggest some possible directions for inclusivity research in terms of scholarships and case studies