Children and the politics of cultural belonging /
Providing families for children in need is unquestionably a worthy goal. Adoption conjures soft-focus images of abandoned and vulnerable innocents welcomed into families who can love and nurture them. People who choose to engage in stranger adoptions, adoptions that do not involve kin or stepparents...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
2012.
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| Online Access: | Contributor biographical information Publisher description Table of contents only |
| Summary: | Providing families for children in need is unquestionably a worthy goal. Adoption conjures soft-focus images of abandoned and vulnerable innocents welcomed into families who can love and nurture them. People who choose to engage in stranger adoptions, adoptions that do not involve kin or stepparents, are typically motivated both by a desire to become a parent and by a wish to do good in the world. The families thus created are, in fact, miraculous, and these families often work hard not only to provide for a found and chosen child but to give back to the communities from which the child originated. The uplifting story of family creation enabled by adoption, however, tows a darker story of marginalization and loss in its wake. Historically, adoption in the United States was not simply about providing care for needy children. It was also explicitly driven by the desire to move children from unsuitable to suitable families. |
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| Physical Description: | viii, 204 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781107017863 1107017866 |