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Introduction: The Global in the Family

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Global Families, Inequality and Transnational Adoption

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Abstract

Högbacka draws out the contours of the whole book. She reviews recent changes in the order of countries of origin and destination showing the increasing importance of Africa. She then situates transnational adoption within the context of the Global North–South divide and explores the consequences for both adopters and families of origin. She also explicates her use of agency as an analytical tool. This chapter concludes with a reflexive account of how the research interviews were produced, showing Högbacka’s own role as an adoptive mother engaging with the South African first mothers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    South Africans themselves still distinguish between ‘blacks’, ‘whites’, ‘coloureds’ and ‘Indians’ (see Alexander 2006, 24). My interviewees also tended to self-identify with these categories. I am therefore using these terms here, but without any derogatory meaning. I am excluding white and Indian first mothers because their children are not allowed to leave the country for transnational adoption given the many families queuing for such a child within South Africa.

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  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Riitta Högbacka

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Högbacka, R. (2016). Introduction: The Global in the Family. In: Global Families, Inequality and Transnational Adoption. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52476-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52476-8_1

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