Inclusive

Abstract

Inclusive is an important term in modern times, central in governmental and institutional discourse on a range of issues, in educational settings, and in discussions about language policy. In its earlier meanings, some of which continue in use, inclusive marks the boundaries of what is and is not in a set, but it has also become a keyword in relation to social equality agendas, indicating a removal of real and perceived boundaries. Being inclusive in the latter sense can have specific entailments and require an individual or group to address the physical obstacles that might prevent particular groups of people from participating in particular activities; in other contexts, though, inclusive is much vaguer, a generally positive description that aligns the speaker with a set of values that are not always clearly defined.

Inclusive is borrowed into English from Latin and is attested in writing from the early fifteenth century (OED¹); the related verb include has a dual etymology from French and Latin and is borrowed around the same time, and the antonym exclusive is first attested slightly later. inclusive appears to be used first as an adverb which postmodifies phrases referring to periods of time or to locations, for example, in expressions like ‘January to June inclusive’; this kind of use is still common, although less likely to refer to anything other than time. From the mid-sixteenth century it is also used as an adjective, both in the general meaning ‘that is included’, which is relatively short-lived, but more often in the sense ‘that includes’, which survives into the present day. The related noun inclusion is attested from around the same time as the adverb; both inclusiveness and inclusivity are derived from inclusive within English, in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries respectively.

Changes in the meanings of inclusive over its history relate to what it can modify, that is, what can be described as inclusive, and its object, that is, what can be included. Some senses involve concrete objects, for example, the obsolete OED sense 3 ‘That encloses or surrounds something’, which applies specifically to entities such as walls and fires which can create a physical boundary. Shakespeare's Richard III plays with this sense in referring to a crown as ‘The inclusiue verge, Of golden mettall that must round my browe’ (1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III iv. i. 58, quoted in OED). Less restricted are uses which refer to a range of concrete and (more often) abstract entities: Arnold Bennett's 1909 book. Literary taste: how to form it uses inclusive of a particular type of collection, meaning ‘including all of many elements of something’, in his statement that ‘Every Englishman..ought to own a comprehensive and inclusive library of English literature’ (1909 A. Bennett Lit. Taste 87, quoted at OED sense 4a). A related meaning refers to prices which include everything, often the costs of holidays or meals, and all-inclusive is also used frequently in this sense. Similarly, OED sense 5 ‘That includes, contains, or incorporates something as part of a group, category etc’ is used to describe a diverse range of subjects, from words with meanings which cover several referents, to areas of land on which particular towns are sited. In this meaning inclusive is often followed by of and a phrase specifying what is included, for example, in Fuller's assertion that ‘Philology..is..inclusive of all human liberal Studies’ (a1661 T. Fuller Hist. Worthies Eng. (1662) i. 26, quoted at OED 5b).

Here an inclusive society means one in which those of all races and ethnicities have equal rights and opportunities. Later uses of this phrase are often intended to broaden out the groups included, such as the United Nations' policy document ‘Vision for an Inclusive Society’, which explicitly refers to ‘differences of race, gender, class, generation, and geography’². In the 1970s, the movement for inclusive education in the United States had another minority group in mind and was specifically aimed to include those with disabilities and learning difficulties in mainstream schools. The verb inclusivize, which was consciously coined in the last decade by the UNESCO Chair in Inclusive Physical Education, Sport, Fitness and Recreation, has a similar focus, referring to a sports initiative to ‘increase accessibility for people with disabilities and other marginalized groups’³.

The association of the word inclusive with social equality may also have been strengthened by language activism campaigns from the 1970s onwards, which established the expression inclusive language. The Corpus of Historical American English⁴ shows that by the 1990s this is overwhelmingly the most frequent collocation for inclusive, although it has since been overtaken, and now inclusive is more likely to modify other nouns including growth, environment, workplace, government, culture and community (according to the News on the Web corpus⁵). Originally the inclusive language movement was concerned with eliminating gender bias ‘either by explicit reference to both sexes or by omission of inessential gender-specific terms’ (OED) and OED notes that the term was ‘introduced in relation to the revision of the Bible and other Christian texts’. Again, though, more recent definitions in the inclusive language guides which many organizations publish for their staff tend to be broader in their scope, and to move beyond gender-neutral language. In a forthcoming book chapter, Beth Malory notes that despite predominantly negative attitudes towards prescriptivism among descriptive and variationist linguists, languages guides are sometimes written with their participation⁶, since many ‘take an active role in politically responsive prescriptivism under the rubric of socially responsible “language reform”’⁷. This tension between negative attitudes towards prescriptivism and much more positive views of inclusive language can also be seen in wider society: aspiring to being inclusive is much more generally acceptable than attempting to be politically correct, although not all speakers make this distinction. A 2019 headline in the UK website Mail Online equates the two expressions, reporting that ‘Microsoft launches new ‘inclusive’ AI tool that will recommend ways to make your writing more politically correct’⁸. The use of inverted commas or scare quotes around inclusive here gives a clear indication of the scepticism with which inclusion agendas are viewed by the right-wing media, which often equates concerns about inclusiveness with liberal woke ideology. On the other hand, an article published on an eLearning website with different ideological views argues that ‘Inclusive language is not the same as being politically correct. Political correctness is focused on not offending whereas inclusive language is focused on honouring people's identities’⁹.

The antonymous expression exclusive language is much less frequent than inclusive language, and it seems likely that this is because of the way exclusive has shifted away from inclusive semantically in their evaluative meanings. In senses relating to containment or measurement, for example, when followed by the preposition of (e.g. inclusive/exclusive of VAT), inclusive and exclusive are still precise antonyms, but in other contexts they are no longer symmetrical. In the sense defined by OED as ‘Disposed to resist the admission of outsiders to membership or to intimacy of association’, exclusive has negative connotations when Hazlitt uses it in an 1822 letter criticizing ‘The same exclusive and narrow-minded spirit [as that of Dissenters]’. However, in more recent use, it is much more likely to be positive, so that an exclusive hotel or an exclusive club is desirable because it is not open to all.

Inclusive forms a cluster with other words referring to social equality: an organization which succeeds in being inclusive is likely to have a diverse workforce who experience equality of opportunity and treatment. The issue of inclusion also relates to equal access, which means different things in different contexts, from enabling people with physical disabilities to work anywhere by providing appropriate facilities, to widening entitlement to health care, to ensuring that education is available to people regardless of background. In the United Kingdom, it is standard practice for institutions such as governments and universities to have equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) units to oversee working practices and ensure that legal obligations relating to the Equality Act 2010 are met. EDI seems to become established as a phrase first in the United States, from around the 1980s, though the formulation DEI is more established in American English, with the middle initial standing for equity rather than equality. DEI policies are closely associated with diversity training, which has become an important part of professional development in many organizations and an industry in itself. A 2023 piece on the website of the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) shows that EDI/DEI practices and policies have become marketable commodities, and an important part of branding, since organizations need to align themselves with the values of their customers and potential employees: ‘… if you're considering CLV [customer lifetime value], then clearly there's a lot more potential in younger consumers, who are more likely to support initiatives around diversity, inclusion and sustainability’¹⁰. At the same time, the article notes that EDI/DEI is a focus of tensions relating to the ideological ‘culture wars’ that have characterized recent political discourse in many countries, and initiatives are often targeted by right-wing politicians and activists.

Like many other words in this cluster, including liberate and decolonize, the positive connotations of inclusive and related words seem to lead to a bleaching of meaning in some uses. An inclusive workplace might be one in which specific physical or procedural adjustments have been made to accommodate the needs of particular groups, either for ethical or legal reasons, but in some contexts inclusive seems to be much vaguer, and more indicative of a broader ideology. The difficulty of making clear distinctions can be seen in a recent Evening Standard article, which reports a survey in which ‘One in five [Brits] … said the social events at their own workplace are not inclusive enough’¹¹. This statement is not unpacked in the rest of the article, but it concludes by quoting the founder of an events business, Hugo Campbell, who refers to ‘workplace events that are truly captivating and inclusive, reflecting the value they place on their employees’. Here the pairing of inclusive with captivating suggests it is much closer semantically to friendly, welcoming or engaging.