What the Map Cuts up the Story Cuts across’

Narratives of Belonging in Intercountry Adoption

Bibliographic Data

ID11942655
AuthorsSarah Richard (0000-0003-4811-101X, University of Suffolk, corresponding author), Sarah Richards (Sarah Richards is Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies, University Campus Suffolk, UK)
Year2012
Volume36
Issue3-4
Pages104-111
Publication date2012-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAdoption & Fostering (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-5759 • E-ISSN: 1740-469X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/030857591203600311
OpenAlexW2013303270
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited14

Adoption stories, like other narratives, seek to establish a child's linear life course. As such, they attempt to encapsulate a biological beginning, a birth point. This point allows certain attributes which are assumed to be fixed and static, such as sex and ethnicity, to be ascribed to the child and these are often taken to be fundamental to the unfolding narrative. Using qualitative research with families who live in England and have adopted daughters from China, Sarah Richards explores the narratives of belonging with the girls themselves and their parents. These belonging stories are shaped by reification of biological parentage and of birth heritage that reflects the social and political context in which adoption stories are told

Archaeology · Art · China · Context (archaeology · Ethnic group · Genealogy · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Reification (Marxism · Social science · Social worlds · Sociology · Anthropology · Child Welfare and Adoption · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Gender Studies · History · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Law

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