Inclusive Society: Challenges and Prospects of Human-Centricity
On March 28, 2025, in Moscow, as part of the XV Grushin Conference, the sections "Inclusive Society: Challenges and Prospects of Human-Centricity" and "Human Capital in an Inclusive Society" were held. Experts discussed key barriers and drivers of inclusion in Russian society, paying special attention to issues of employment, education, representation in the media field and social policy.
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The sections were organized in cooperation between the HSE ILSIR, the Federal State Budgetary Institution Federal Scientific Center for Medical and Social Expertise and Relation named after G.A. Albrecht of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, and the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM). The section “Inclusive Society: Challenges and Prospects of Human-Centricity” was moderated by Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova (HSE University, ILSIR), and the section “Human Capital in an Inclusive Society” was moderated by Maria Kozlova (HSE ILSIR). Leading researchers and practitioners, experts from the HSE University, RANEPA, VTsIOM, the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other research centers took part in the sections. Participants discussed how an inclusive culture is being formed in Russia, what values and norms influence the development of inclusive practices in institutional contexts and how they relate to the principles of human-centeredness.
The section "Inclusive Society: Challenges and Prospects of Human-Centricity" was opened by a report by Tatyana Skoraya (AGO "Donor Forum"), offering an overview of modern approaches to defining inclusion and a list of the most successful inclusive practices. Igor Novikov presented the results of a study in his report on human-centredness in Russian digital companies perception of the concept of inclusion in modern Russian digital companies by employees with disabilities. Konstantin Obukhov, Victoria Antonova, Daria Prisyazhnyuk and Elena Iarskaia-Smirnova (HSE University, ILSIR) noted that today more than half of HR specialists have either not heard anything about DIP, or have heard, but their knowledge is superficial. In general, most HR specialists note a rather positive impact of DIP implementation on the company's reputation.
Elena Omelchenko, Irina Lisovskaya and Evgeniya Kuziner from the HSE Youth Studies Centre (St. Petersburg) examined strategies and practices for overcoming isolation and inclusion in the global academic community. Nikita Bolshakov (HSE University, ILSIR) and Nika Chupyatova (GES-2 Community Centre) highlighted changes in the role of Russian Sign Language interpreters in the perception of the deaf and hard of hearing. Professionalization of sign language interpreters impacts relationships with the deaf community, study finds.
Alexey Ruchin (VTsIOM) and Anastasia Papko (We Perform as One Charitable Foundation) shared the results of a study of career plans and requests of professional athletes in the area of additional education and employment and how, based on the results of the study, the Foundation reoriented the vector of its activities.
Yana Rocheva and Artem Shavonin (FSBI FSRC MSE and R named after G.A. Albrecht of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation) presented a summary of the results of all-Russian studies of attitudes towards people with disabilities and the results of an analysis of the representation of people with disabilities in the media. An important result of such research was the strengthening of a positive attitude towards people with disabilities, which forms the basis for the development of an inclusive society.
Dmitry Rogozin (RANEPA) highlighted the problem of inclusive healthy aging practices in his report. The issue of age group inclusion was continued by Margarita Astoyantz (Southern Federal University), who highlighted the motivation for social participation of older age groups of Russians. An important motivational factor for participation is the level of resourcefulness: its high values correlate with personal motivation, while low values are associated with reciprocal motives. Irina Grigorieva (Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences) analyzed the phenomenon of ageism and the distinction between the concepts of “adult” and “elderly”. As the speaker noted, granting the right to work as much as an elderly person decides is an opportunity to prolong adulthood and postpone aging.
The conference participants also focused on issues of inclusive education. The section "Human Capital in an Inclusive Society" was opened by Svetlana Alekhina (MGPU) who presented the report "Inclusive School: Development Dilemmas" by Svetlana Alekhina (MGPU), in which she focused on the key problems that Russian schools face when implementing inclusive practices. In particular, the discussion focused on the need to include the basic requirements in the inclusive model in accordance with the regulatory framework. Maria Kozlova (HSE University, ILSIR) presented observations on the role of grassroots innovations in educational institutions and an inclusive educational environment as a vector of school organizational policy.
Vitaly Kantor from the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia presented eight types of inclusive dispositions of general education teachers. He noted that teachers tend to attribute positive dispositions to themselves and see negative ones in the pedagogical community around them. Elmira Naberushkina (Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation) in her report “Social risks of developing higher inclusive education” examined the social risks that the Russian higher education system faces when implementing inclusive programs.
Elena Starobina (FSBI FSRC MSE and R named after G.A. Albrecht of the Ministry of Labor of Russia) spoke about the existing technologies and approaches to the inclusion of people with disabilities in work activities. The main reasons for the exclusion of disabled people in the workplace, discrimination in labor activity, factors and technologies for the inclusion of people with disabilities in labor activity were considered.
At the end of the section, Elena Rozhdestvenskaya (HSE University) presented a report on the topic “Social rehabilitation of veterans of local conflicts: the aspect of moral trauma.” It was noted that participants in military conflicts not only face moral traumas, but also the difficulties of choosing a linguistic repertoire to describe them. The participants in the discussion paid special attention to the issue of applying the concept of trauma in the social sciences.
Participants in the sections noted that inclusion in Russian society remains a challenge that requires active interaction between the research community, educational institutions, business and public policy. The discussion showed that successful inclusive practices are formed under the influence social and economic factors, and their dissemination requires comprehensive support at all levels.
The conference participants identified key trends in the field of formation and study of an inclusive society.
Major donors not only provide direct assistance to those in need or finance programs and projects of non-profit providers, branding inclusion as a prestigious and fashionable agenda through impact investing, but also contribute to the formation of an evidence base for good deeds, appealing to analytical agencies, scientific organizations, university centers, and also systematize and generalize their activities themselves. Research allows making practice more informed, forming a strategic vision of the tasks of philanthropy by key players non-governmental inclusive policy (reports by T. Skoraya, A. Ruchina, A. Papko).
In the business environment, trends are observed in the implementation of an inclusive agenda such as the involvement of people with disabilities through the creation of various jobs, including, due to organizational isomorphism, inclusion can begin with the creation of separate, exclusive sites (report by I. Novikov). The invisible hand of the market, global offices and government regulation have the greatest influence in transforming inclusive hiring from sporadic practices into rational strategies, with the size enterprises directly influences the possibilities of implementing inclusive policies (report by K. Obukhov, V. Antonova, D. Prisyazhnyuk, E. Yarskaya-Smirnova).
Researchers, representatives of inclusive departments and charitable foundations of large businesses point to a trend towards expanding the window of employment opportunities for vulnerable groups, who literally several years ago, they were not noticeable even in the secondary workforce segments (people with disabilities, senior pensioners), while discrimination against some groups creates serious GR and brand risks for corporations, forcing HR managers to reflect on the new policy and ideology of inclusion (I. Novikov, T. Skoraya, I. Grigorieva, E. Starobina). At the same time, it is necessary to reconsider the medical model widespread in society and the paternalistic attitude towards such groups associated with it, to develop and promote educational programs for the elderly, and not to limit ourselves to the framework of “care” and “protection”, while, however, not forgetting the importance of holistic approach to health and understanding human-centeredness as the main principle of inclusion (reports by D. Rogozin, M. Astoyantz, I. Grigorieva, Ya. Rochev, A. Shavonin).
The study of the professionalization of Russian sign language interpreters points to links between community demands and the growth in the number of specialists with relevant competencies, which helps to strengthen positive identity of groups that move from the category of “vulnerable” to the status of reflective subjects who feel belonging and inclusion (report by N.V. Bolshakov).
In the early stages of their academic careers, young scientists are in the status of precarity, which, in the context of reduced resources at the university level and global restrictions on scientific connections and mobility, actualizes support, otherwise migration to non-academic environments is inevitable (report by E. Omelchenko).
Inclusion and human-centredness are represented not only as moral values, but also as a tool for solving specific problems, in demand by the state, business and communities of expansion.
Educational institutions and businesses are making the most visible efforts to overcome these barriers, which is being implemented in the development and dissemination of, for example, the Basic Model of an Inclusive Educational Organization (report by S.V. Alekhina), the idea of a friendly educational environment (M.A. Kozlova) and close attention to the content of inclusive training of secondary and higher education teachers (E.K. Naberushkina, V.Z. Kantor)
The idea of inclusion overcomes the boundaries of narrow institutional contexts (education, employment, social services) and becomes one of the key topics in the Russian public sphere. Cultural citizenship, as the ability to bring individual and group experience into the public space with the confidence that the experience will be heard, will become a subject of discussion, will not be ignored or devalued, and the social subject who experienced it will be supported, will become a reference point and, at the same time, a tool for overcoming inequality in a diverse society and developing a culture of inclusion and DEI policies within key institutions (reports by E.Yu. Rozhdestvenskaya, M.A. Kozlova).
Political, academic and business interpretations of inclusion are moving away from focusing on people with disabilities as key actors and "beneficiaries" of inclusion to involve in the implementation of inclusive practices representatives of a wide range of vulnerable groups whose interests are poorly represented in the public space. However, the willingness to reflect and promote the idea of inclusion in the intersectional dimension or the refusal to the categorical approach as such (which is more in line with the idea of human-centrism) is only just being formed today. In the research field, this poses the task of developing a methodology that allows us to ask and solve questions about intersectionality. Research in the field of social policy is taking on new challenges due to the complexity of formalizing the phenomenology of diversity in the legal field.
The presentations presented within the framework of the section can be found at this link.