Exploring the relationship between inclusion and digitalization in public participation: a qualitative study of administrators’ perceptions

Public officials play a central role in translating inclusion and digitalization into everyday participatory governance. Yet research has paid limited attention to how public officials themselves understand inclusive digital participation. Drawing on 41 semi-structured interviews with project managers involved in participatory projects in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, this qualitative study examines how public officials perceive the opportunities and limitations of digital tools for inclusive participation in the post-pandemic context. The findings show that digitalization is understood ambivalently: it can widen access, simplify communication, and support participation across constraints of time and distance, but it can also reproduce existing inequalities linked to age, digital skills, language, and access to devices. Inclusion is often framed as openness in principle, yet participants varied in the extent to which they critically recognized the structural barriers that continue to exclude some groups from meaningful participation. The analysis highlights a distinction between assumed inclusivity and critical inclusivity, showing how formally open processes may still reproduce exclusion. Overall, the study points to the importance of institutional reflexivity, hybrid participation formats, and targeted outreach if digital participation is to move from a formal aspiration to a genuinely inclusive practice.