Market forces: Defining the adoptable child, 1860-1940

Journal article

Swain, Shurlee. (2012). Market forces: Defining the adoptable child, 1860-1940. Social policy and society. 11(3), pp. 399 - 414. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746412000152
AuthorsSwain, Shurlee
Abstract

Discomfort about the notion of adoption as facilitating a market in children has been one of the major motivations for regulation and control, not only for intercountry adoption but throughout the history of in country adoption as well. This paper explores the nature of the market in Australia, beginning in the decades before legalisation but looking also for continuities in the ways in which in country and later intercountry adoptions have been debated. Drawing on an analysis of advertisements from major metropolitan and regional newspapers it argues that benevolence always exists in an uneasy alliance with assumptions about the right to a child, creating a ‘shopping list’ of desired characteristics which the market has rarely been able to satisfy.

Keywordsadoption; adoption history; adoption legislation; newspaper advertisements; market in children
Year2012
JournalSocial policy and society
Journal citation11 (3), pp. 399 - 414
PublisherCambridge University Press
ISSN1474-7464
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746412000152
Page range399 - 414
Research GroupSchool of Arts
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled
Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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