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Configuring Adoptive Kinship: ‘Close, But Not Too Close’

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Parenthood and Open Adoption

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Abstract

In a detailed examination of how relationships in the adoptive kinship network are actualised, MacDonald conceptualises the practices of contact in open adoption as family practices (Morgan, Family connections: An introduction to family studies. Polity Press: Cambridge, 1996; Rethinking Family Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Analysing adoptive parents’ accounts, MacDonald illuminates the tacit rules that determined the position given to birth relatives, and describes the practices by which these configurations (Widmer and Jallinoja, Beyond the nuclear family: Families in configurational perspective. Bern: Peter Lang, 2008) are sustained, revealing the nuanced ways that different birth relatives can be variously positioned as kin through practices that simultaneously include and exclude. The most family-like relationships might be possible with birth relatives who support the adoption, demonstrate commitment to the child’s welfare, and do not make excessive demands on the adoptive family. MacDonald identifies the need for more accurate vocabulary to describe kinship roles and relationships in open adoption.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK

    Mandi MacDonald

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  1. Mandi MacDonald
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MacDonald, M. (2016). Configuring Adoptive Kinship: ‘Close, But Not Too Close’. In: Parenthood and Open Adoption. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57645-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57645-3_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-57644-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-57645-3

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