Long abstract:

Increasing diversity and inclusion have become a pressing concern in health research. Within the context of a recently initiated large interdisciplinary consortium that aims to conduct longitudinal and inclusive research into household practices, the microbiome and metabolic health, one of the main goals is to enhance the inclusion of what is often referred to as “under-represented populations” in health-outcome-centered research. While acknowledging the importance of engaging citizens from diverse social background, as social scientists we raise the following questions: what diversity, inclusion and representation mean; how these notions operate in practice during the selection and engagement of citizens in research; what outcomes they generate; and how the pursuit of diversity and inclusivity – along with the associated processes of framing and categorisation – might themselves be a source of exclusion or a reason for non-participation. In this presentation, we aim to reflect on these questions and discuss our own recruitment practices, where we attempt to balance a representation and justice-driven approach to recruitment with a theoretical sampling approach informed by grounded theory.