Is adoption an environmental threat? Domestication fantasies in Swedish adoption narratives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3520290 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richey Wyver (0000-0003-0895-301X, University of Auckland, corresponding author), Steve Matthewman (0000-0002-7497-5877, University of Auckland) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 546-563 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00380261241234175 |
| OpenAlex | W4392365941 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 23 |
In 2017 Ghassan Hage published Is Racism an Environmental Threat? The book's question misleads. For Hage does not seek to show that the former leads to the latter, rather, he elucidates the logics of domination that are common to both. Hage states that 'generalised domestication' is the clearest optic through which to see both racism reproducing and revitalising itself and violence towards the environment. This is a way of being in the world that seeks to capture, tame, domesticate and control people and non-humans. It seeks to render others docile and to extract value from them. In so doing it leads to the creation of 'homely spaces'. Following Hage, this article asks: Is adoption an environmental threat? We reflect on the role of international adoption in fantasies of Swedishness using Hage's concept of domestication to explore the desire for 'transracial' bodies of adoptees in white national space. We argue that the adoptee body plays an important role in domesticating the Swedish nation. It is used to represent national myths of goodness, anti-racism and international solidarity; effectively bringing national projects into the home. This is linked to a broader desire for domestication that encompasses colonialism, slavery and species and environmental domination. While our focus is on Sweden - which has the highest per capita adoption rates in the world - we hope that our scholarship can inform adoption issues elsewhere, as well as contribute to sociological debates around extraction and domination in postcolonial contexts more broadly
Art · Biology · Domestication · Environmental ethics · Narrative · Sociology · Child Welfare and Adoption · Children's Rights and Participation · Ecology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
Postcolonialism
Narratives in Social Science Research
Belonging in an Adopted World
Suicide, psychiatric illness, and social maladjustment in intercountry adoptees in Sweden
Eco-reproductive concerns in the age of climate change
Image-Maker in Residence
Is Racism an Environmental Threat
Transnational Adoption and European Immigration Politics
The climate mitigation gap
Eating the [M]Other
Universal Human Rights and the Coloniality of Race in Sweden
Supporting the Interests of Intercountry Adoptees beyond Childhood
Intercountry adoption of children from Asia in the twenty-first century
Mother, Child, Race, Nation
Degrading Attitudes Related to Foreign Appearance
Adopted Children in the Labour Market — Discrimination or Unobserved Characteristics
The Adoption of Children
To be Non-white in a Colour-Blind Society
Three phases of hegemonic whiteness
Too brown to be Swedish, too Swedish to be anything else
The White Side of Migration
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |