"As a social and legal institution of family formation, and as a personal experience of members of the adoption triad, adoption provides a fresh vantage point on an important set of philosophical and feminist issues. The family is often thought to be the basic and natural form of social life for human beings; adoption, however, highlights the powerful role that law and politics play in shaping families and our ideas about families. As a result, attention to the practices of adoption sheds light upon deeply held, but often tacit assumptions about what is natural and what is social in human life."-from the Introduction

The institution of adoption has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years as the adoption world has undergone seismic shifts: the rise in international and transracial adoptions and the effects of global economics; adoption by gays and lesbians; increasing openness in the adoption process; and changes in domestic welfare policy on adoption.

Adoption Matters adds to our understanding of reproduction, parenting, familial bonds, personal identity, self-knowledge, and contemporary social policy. The contributors to Adoption Matters explore a range of related topics, such as the manner in which interracial or international adoption affects the way we perceive the relationships among race, ethnicity, and culture and how class affects one's life prospects and choices.

About the Author

Sally Haslanger is Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Charlotte Witt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. She is the author of Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle's Metaphysics and Substance and Essence in Aristotle: An Interpretation of Metaphysics VII-IX (both from Cornell).

Reviews

In this provocative collection, thirteen feminist scholars (most of whom are adoptive mothers or adopted daughters) consider adoption within the conceptual framework of family. Integrating philosophy and personal experience, the contributors explore the privileging of the heterosexual family, biologism, and whiteness and unpack the effects of dominant social norms on the individual and family.

* Library Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9780801489631
Author Sally Haslanger
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 155mm * 21mm