International Adoption as Humanitarian Aid: The Discursive and Material Production of the “Social Orphan” in Haitian Disaster Relief

Abstract

Scientific analyses of “natural” disasters consider the interplay of multiple relationships between ever-evolving processes: meteorological conditions, geological forces, population density, infrastructure, institutional preparedness, individual and community responses, among other factors. In order to understand natural disasters and their widespread impact, scholars in physical and social sciences utilize multiple levels of analysis to consider the ways in which natural and social landscapes are coconstructed in relation to each other. While disaster events such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes certainly shape the future of these landscapes, political and cultural histories also influence the way these events are experienced by individuals and communities. Intersectionality has thus emerged as an important methodological tool for exploring the social, political, and economic dimensions of these events. A critical theory concerned with illuminating the operation and production of power, intersectionality considers how identity categories are constituted through cultural discourse, institutional processes, and political structures in ways that produce inequality, privilege, and marginalization. Within an intersectional framework, identity categories are understood as constructs imbedded with discursive and material histories that reflect relationships among people and social institutions.