Peripheral Inclusion Through Informal Silencing and Voice: A Study of LGB Officers in the Swedish Police

Seen through the growth of progressive diversity policies it may appear that contemporary organizations are sites of equality. But although inclusion is the formally stated aim of many organizations, exclusionary pressures toward LGBT workers still challenge sexual minorities' access to full inclusion. A central concern in this paper is exploring how to understand inclusion in organizational contexts where inclusion is formally advocated, and yet where both inclusionary and exclusionary pressures exist. Drawing on an interview study of Swedish gay and lesbian police officers we present the concept 'peripheral inclusion' as a way to understand inclusion in contemporary organizational life. In addition, we theorize that the dynamics between silencing and voice is a key mode that impacts the informal ways in which exclusion and inclusion occur. We thereby contribute to previous research on inclusion that has focused on the degree to which minorities are included by conceptualizing the mode in which inclusion occurs in everyday work. Studying modes and degrees of inclusion and exclusion in relation to each other highlights how inclusion is a collective and fragile process in which inclusionary and exclusionary pressures coexist, and that questions of who and what is included in contemporary organizations are shifting and open questions.