Included to be excluded?

Abstract

This paper focuses on practices of inclusion and exclusion through an organizational ethnography of an aircraft cleaning company, which can be characterized as an ethnic minority dominated organization. We make use of relational ontology to help demonstrate the complex, continuing and interrelated ways in which inclusion and exclusion takes place. We zoom in on the everyday routines in the aircraft cleaning company and zoom out on its inclusionary and exclusionary effects. Building on Mascareno and Carvajal (2015), we identify three practices of inclusion and exclusion (self-inclusion/self-exclusion, inclusion in risk/exclusion by danger and inclusion in subordination) and analyze how these take on a different meaning in the setting of low-wage labor. With this paper, we aim to strengthen the analytical tools to analyze the interrelatedness of inclusion and exclusion and to emphasize the importance of making ‘class’ part of diversity and inclusion conceptualization and management.