Authors:
Identifies two aspects of open
adoption that have received little attention in previous research: public
openness, and the practices involved in configuring adoptive kinship
Seeks to ameliorate the stigma of open adoption and re-assess its cultural value and impact
Includes original interviews which share parents’ personal experiences of open adoption
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book explores what it is like to be involved in contemporary open adoption, characterised by varying forms of contact with birth relatives, from an adoptive parent point of view.
The author’s fine-grained interpretative phenomenological analysis of adopters’ accounts reveals the complexity of kinship for those whose most significant relationships are made, unmade and permanently altered through adoption. MacDonald distinctively connects adoption to wider sociological theories of relatedness and personal life, and focuses on domestic non-kin adoption of children from state care, including compulsory adoption. The book also addresses current child welfare concerns, and suggestions are made for adoption practice. The book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in adoption, social work, child welfare, foster care, family and sociology.
Authors and Affiliations
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School ofSocialScie,Education&Socialwork, Queen’s University School ofSocialScie,Education&Socialwork, Belfast, United Kingdom
Mandi MacDonald
About the author
Mandi MacDonald is Lecturer in social work at Queens University, Belfast, UK. She has extensive social work experience in statutory child welfare services in Northern Ireland, most recently undertaking permanence planning and public adoption for children in care.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Parenthood and Open Adoption
Book Subtitle: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Authors: Mandi MacDonald
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57645-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-57644-6Published: 23 July 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-57645-3Published: 05 July 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 142
Topics: Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Children, Youth and Family Policy, Child Well-being, Social Work