Conference Agenda

This is an exploratory study on the paradox of diversity and inclusion through literature review. Diversity is a complex concept and is sometimes controversial.

It is important to value diversity because people build a stronger sense of identity and wellbeing, and have better education and career outcomes when their diverse strengths, abilities, interests and perspectives are understood and supported. Valuing diversity is what institutions and members of a community do to acknowledge the benefits of their differences and similarities. They intentionally work to build sustainable relationships among people and institutions with diverse membership. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are three closely linked values held by many organizations that are working to be supportive of different groups of individuals, including people of different races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations.

The paradox of diversity is that exclusively focusing on and measuring the representation of minority groups in an effort to create a diverse staff not only often fails to accomplish that end but also prevents companies from capturing the value of difference. Diversity strategies that overemphasize representation or are otherwise narrow in their approach may cause even well-intentioned organizations to stumble into one or several common pitfalls. Cultural trait diversity offers the largest potential for empowering innovation, but also poses difficult challenges at both an organizational and societal level. Working toward inclusion in diverse organizations and societies can often be experienced as polarizing and presents many challenges and tensions. Without more tolerance for diversity, our societies will get increasingly polarised. But more diversity also means more inequality in outcomes. For organisations and countries, it is thus not sufficient to only strengthen the positive aspects of diversity, like increasing the tolerance of diversity to drive innovation. They also need to tackle the challenges, for example by the redistribution of resources and avoiding zero-sum competition between different groups.

Research suggests it is endemic to group life to accentuate similarity within groups and maximize differences between groups. Uncertainty motivates identification with clearly defined groups. Greater identification emerges when diversity and value similarity are important. Identity and sense of belonging are stronger in homogeneous groups and identity is shaped by values. Self-expression and identity, boundaries and norms, and safety and comfort (Ferdman, 2017).

The paper explores the possible application of this concept in public domain through an example of the handicapped inclusion policy (Nagahama, 2018).

Health. Innovate to prevent

Sectors of interest:Tools enhancing diversity and democracy. Diversity and inclusion management. Cross cultural training model and social impact

Home as a place of care

The demographic decline and the increase of an ageing population urgently pose problems concerning new care scenarios. The idea is to promote and experiment a culture of integrated home care for the elderly and the fragile individual in isolated conditions, with the help of new technologies, in order to preserve the individual's identity and to facilitate the diffusion of territorial care interventions.

In this sense, the study proposes to analyse social models which, on the basis of public-private partnership interactions, start from the promotion of the digital literacy of the elderly in order to stem the phenomenon of the digital divide through an obligation to educate the over-65 population (and the consequent organisation of courses aimed at making it possible for the elderly to become at least technologically self-sufficient).

The analysis aims at the experimentation of models enabling the activation of a technology aimed at putting the elderly in conditions of loneliness and abandonment in contact with young referrals interested in care for a profitable intergenerational exchange and as a supplement to the medical and social care service.

In this perspective, the proposed socio-legal analysis model is characterised by the evolution towards a gradual replacement of care in hospices and para-hospices with home care integrated by competent subjects in the area in order to guarantee home care also through the provision of meals in accordance with the criteria of sustainable ecology.

The study must be based on a regulation of public-private relations and on the involvement of citizenship in the promotion of territorial care interventions in order to allow a delocalisation of investments and a channelling of the same and in order to decentralise care services to the home level, for a greater awareness, identity and preservation of the dignity of the person in fragile conditions and for a reduction of the exposure to the risk of pathologies.

It is proposed to support the implementation of these socio-legal models of integration of the elderly population also with risk assessment studies to analyse the exposure to risk and the regulation of the same in the face of different models of care intervention.

In Finland, immigrant populations show reportedly lower satisfaction with health care services. A recent study by Çilenti et al. (2021) on the use of health services in Finland showed a particularly high need for doctor treatment among Russian and Kurdish women. Another study by Bastola et al. (2022) found that in three Nordic countries, women of migrant origin experience a higher rate of adverse pregnancy complications due to the barriers to access to healthcare. Other studies, such as Castaneda et al. (2020), pointed out that migrants in Finland are highly underrepresented in mental health and rehabilitation services. We conducted a systematic literature review examining the health disparities among immigrant women in Finland. The objectives of the studies are firstly, to discover what type of policy or treatment is considered the disparities in terms of health care for women of migrant origin; secondly, to reveal the factors that influence unfair treatment between these groups; and finally, to identify the specific challenges in health care that refugees and working migrant women encounter. By enhancing our understanding of immigrant women's experiences through a systematic literature review that integrates migrants' perspectives, we can identify gaps in current healthcare services and inform policies and practices.

Background

From its initial formulation by Erikson (1950, 1959, 1964) within the field of Social Psychology, the concept of Generativity has been finding several interpretations, implications, and applications within Social Sciences. Generativity is primarily defined as the capacity to positively influence one’s own community with personal action. It assumes that individuals are moved by a sense of life satisfaction

which rewards for what they are doing for the civil progress and wellbeing of those who will follow.

Accordingly, generativity is recognized as the combination of creativity and care for other people wellbeing as drivers of life sense and satisfaction.

Within studies regarding sustainable development of a society, Generativity has been settled within human interaction, finding a positive association with social involvement in aspects such as charity, mentoring, nursing, volunteering, teaching, religion, and political activity, for the benefit of the next generations (Timilsina et al. 2018). Moreover, Generativity refers also to the quality of urban planning according to a proactive process of involvement and collaboration of citizenship aimed at an urban development which takes into account the real needs of the population (Mehaffy 2008). In the field

of public policies Becchetti and Conzo (2021) found that the role of Generativity can be extended at country level as a driver of resilience, intended as the capacity to revert as quick as possible to the previous wellbeing level, after a negative shock.

Aim

Considering the power of sport as a strategic incentive to support citizens’ relationships and their quality of life, we examined actual experiences of non-professional sport initiatives towards public value creation. In other words, according to the Generativity theories, the research aims at investigating the role of Sport in fostering social wellbeing, inclusion, and sub-urban areas development, with the goal to support public policies about the implementation of sport-driven programmes for reducing social inequalities and enhancing dynamic community growth.