It is now over 20 years since 'open adoption' was first introduced, but it remains a controversial and contested part of social work practice. This innovative and far ranging book sets out to understand why the practice of keeping adopted children in touch with their kinship origins is still so questioned in contemporary adoption work. Written by an experienced practitioner in the field, this book applies, for the first time, Foucauldian methodology to analyze and understand adoption social work, making it essential reading for a wide audience in the social sciences.

Romantic relationships and health are fundamental for society, but what happens to a person's well-being when he or she chooses the "wrong" partner? Interracial Romance and Health: Bridging Generations, Race Relations, and Well-Being tackles this growing public health issue, which impacts millions of people in interracial relationships, especially young adults. With a particular focus on a group of young adults whom he calls the Bridge Kids, Byron Miller provides a critical examination of how racial identity, socialization, and the partner selection process influence whether a person becomes interracially involved. For those that do cross racial lines for romance, Miller reveals that the race of one's partner can have a significant impact on their lived experiences and health outcomes. Opposing the idea that interracial relationships are bad for society and an individual's health, Miller argues that interracial romance has health benefits for some, is generally good for society, and that what is truly detrimental is the unnecessary stress people in interracial relationships feel due to their experiences with stigma, racism, and discrimination. Miller concludes that as the prevalence of interracial romance grows, so does the urgency to address these issues to protect the well-being of the Bridge Kids and others in interracial romantic partnerships.

Each family has its secrets, ones that shape family communication and relationships in a way generally unknown to the outsider and often the family itself. Autoethnographers, students of these relationships, confront many silences in their attempts to understand these social worlds. It is often the accidental slip, the spontaneous discussion, the offhanded comment that opens this terrain of secrets to the conscientious storyteller. Accidental Ethnography delves into this shadowy world of pain and loss in the hopes of finding productive, ethical avenues for transforming the secret lives of families into powerful narratives of hope. It merges autoethnographic method with the therapeutic power of storytelling to heal family wounds. Poulos's lyrical text will appeal to those in ethnography, interpersonal communication, and family relationships alike.

Maligned as "deadbeat dadsor sexually and financially irresponsible, inner-city fathers and overlooked in discussions of poverty and family policy, economically vulnerable nonresident fathers are a greatly misunderstood population. Failing our Fathers summarizes the most recent rigorous and ethnographic research and fills in important gaps with new analyses. The result is a comprehensive picture of who these fathers are, what types of relationships they have with their families and children, and the challenges they face meeting what they, taxpayers and their children and families expect from them. The book argues that in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 Great Mancession, nearly 6 million - almost one of every eleven - men will be unable to provide financial and other kinds of support for their children who live elsewhere. This population is far larger than the inner city, unmarried, Black and Latino men who have been the focus of the debate on disadvantaged fathers. Because so few could reduce the child support obligations that built up during the mass unemployment and incarceration over the previous two decades, they have long-term debts, which they may never be able to pay. Nevertheless, they play active roles as friends, mentors, educators, and disciplinarians for their children and they want to do more. However, they face several challenges, including: time and distance, new family obligations, contentious relationships with children's mothers - who just as often have new partners and children of their own - and personal problems with drugs, alcohol and past or present jail time. Besides requiring these fathers to support their children, we must enable them to do so in ways that parallel how we require and enable vulnerable single mothers to do the same. The book lays out specific reforms required to do this and practical tips for those who are Fathering without Means.

Each family has its secrets, ones that shape family communication and relationships in a way generally unknown to the outsider and often the family itself. Autoethnographers, students of these relationships, confront many silences in their attempts to understand these social worlds. It is often the accidental slip, the spontaneous discussion, the offhanded comment that opens this terrain of secrets to the conscientious storyteller. Accidental Ethnography delves into this shadowy world of pain and loss in the hopes of finding productive, ethical avenues for transforming the secret lives of families into powerful narratives of hope. It merges autoethnographic method with the therapeutic power of storytelling to heal family wounds. Poulos's lyrical text will appeal to those in ethnography, interpersonal communication, and family relationships alike.

On what basis are sibling relations made and negotiated and how do they change over time? How do siblings provide support, but also create pressure or conflict? Despite their importance as models for or contrasts to marriage, friendship, and nation, sibling relations have been largely ignored in anthropology. In this volume, the contributors provide a conceptualization of siblingship as shared parentage, exchange, and experience. They explore what makes these relations worth maintaining and how they contribute to wider community processes, material support, and emotional connection. The ethnographic case studies provide detailed descriptions of lived sibling relations in various settings across the globe.

This book brings together ten original empirical works focusing on the influence of various types of spatial mobility - be it international or national- on partnership, family and work life. The contributions cover a range of important topics which focus on understanding how spatial mobility is related to familial relationships and life course transitions. The volume offers new insights by bringing together the state of the art in theoretical and empirical approaches from spatial mobility and international migration research. This includes, for example, studies that investigate the relationships between international migration and changing patterns of partnership choice, family formation and fertility. Complementing to this, this volume presents new empirical studies on job-related residential mobility and its impact on the relationship quality of couples, family life, and union dissolution. It also highlights the importance of research that looks at the reciprocal relationships between mobility and life course events such as young adults leaving the parental home in international migration context, re-arrangements of family life after divorce and spatial mobility of the elderly following life transitions. The scholarly work included in this volume does not only contribute to theoretical debates but also provide timely empirical evidence from various societies which represent the common features in the dynamics of spatial mobility and migration.

Against the late nineteenth-century European trend of theoretical elaborations of negative homosexual stereotypes and the legal persecution of homosexuals, German sexologist, Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) introduced a scientific and humanistic approach to homosexual emancipation. Radical from the outset, his pioneering theorizations of gender overturned the dual sex system and revealed the artificiality of gender. Beyond destabilizing traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity and substantiating the naturalness of such phenomena as homosexual, intersexed, and transgendered identities, Hirschfeld deployed his theories to serve as the basis of a steadfast and influential campaign for the decriminalization of homosexuality and an international sexual freedom movement that championed the principal causes of the women's movement and the rights of all sexual minorities. Integrating the predominant cultural, scientific, and political discourses during Hirschfeld's lifetime, Elena Mancini illuminates his cosmopolitan and classical liberal political and cultural stance, showing him as more than a homosexual theorist and activist. This fascinating study shows how his opposition to fascism and to all forms of sexual and racial hierarchies makes him a humanist for our times and an inspiration for those who strive for social and political inclusion and tolerance.

Surveying current research findings, social trends, and public controversies, Work and Family in America examines the changing cultures of the workplace, family, and home. Once viewed as a "women and day care" problem, work-family now encompasses a vast and complex set of issues. Eldercare. Fatherhood. Telecommuting. Pay equity. Employee productivity and retention. Feminism. Child care and childcare development. Youth violence. Welfare. Nontraditional families and family values. This extensive overview of this burgeoning field includes everything from a detailed history and statistics comparing trends in the United States and abroad to key legislation and legal cases. It gives biographical sketches of well-known activists like Betty Friedan, Arle Hothschild, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Lesser-known advocates like James A. Levine, director of the Fatherhood Project at the Family and Work Institute and MIT professor Lotte Bailyn, who believes work should be organized around tasks, not time, are also included. Covers the initial research on work-family from the 1970s and 1980s to the recent research showing that men are experiencing significant amounts of work-family stress as they become more involved with family life while the culture of the workplace remains largely unresponsive Includes an overview of legislation and cases that have impacted the field with particular emphasis on employment laws affecting women-a key component of the study of work-family

In our society, the argument for or against same-sex marriage becomes even more heated when the debate turns to bisexual women and men. Bisexuality and Same-Sex Marriage thoughtfully explores this debate from a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives, presenting respected scholars from fields as diverse as American Studies, Communication, Criminology, Human and Organizational Systems, Law and Social Policy, LGBT Studies, Organizational Behavior, Psychology, Sociology, Women's Studies, and Queer Studies. This clear-viewed volume is organized into three perspectives?theoretical, research, and personal?that frame the debate from a macro to micro level of analysis.
This book goes beyond the intense acrimony and divisiveness to rationally examine the issue from various viewpoints and through the latest research. This informative text presents and analyzes in depth the current findings and the diverse LGBT and straight perspectives on the issue. This insightful resource discusses in detail personal views, the latest theories, and is extensively referenced.

Bisexuality and Same-Sex Marriage is an essential volume for LGBT studies professionals, psychologists, counselors, educators, students, and interested general public.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Bisexuality.

As the structure of the family changes with the proliferation of single parent families, working mothers, infant and day care, and societal complexities and stresses, early therapy for the mother-child dyad becomes critical. Gochman's program, begun under the auspices of the National Institute of Mental Health, has made an impact on the Washington, D.C. area and has ignited a carryover into development training and research in primary prevention programs. This is the first time that mother-infant psychotherapy has been presented outside the professional journal literature. Through case studies, observations, and procedural explanations, Gochman lays out her practice in clear and urgent detail.

The purpose of this book is to serve as a guide to understanding the Latino family in the United States and to describe the personal, political, historical, and sacred choices available in creating a freer and more fruitful family life. By linking theory to practice, the book provides a reenvisioning of the Latino family. Before any family can look at itself in a new way, it has to have a theoretical perspective. The book's theory of transformation provides a perspective that allows us to understand Latino families and the family in general. Furthermore, the politics of transformation shows us how to create fundamentally new and better relationships within the family.

This textbook offers a comprehensive overview of research on LGBTQ-parent families. The new edition of the textbook provides updated information and expands on the range and depth of current research. The volume features contributions from scholars in psychology, sociology, human development, family studies, gender studies, sexuality studies, legal studies, social work, and anthropology. In addition, the textbook offers an international perspective, with coverage spanning many diverse nations and cultures. Chapters highlight key research, exploring sexual orientation in relation to other key social identities, such as gender, race, and nationality. Chapters also discuss new, emerging areas of research, including asexuality and immigration. The textbook concludes with a section on the growing sophistication of research methodology in the study of LGBTQ-parent families. The second edition includes new chapters discussing: LGBTQ-parent families and health. LGBTQ foster parents. LGBTQ adults and sibling relationships. LGBTQ-parent families and poverty. LGBTQ-parent families and separation/divorce. LGBTQ-parent families and religion. LGBTQ-parent families and grief/loss. Methods, recruitment, and sampling in research with LGBTQ families. Teaching/pedagogy on LGBTQ-parent families. LGBTQ-Parent Families, 2nd Edition, is a valuable updated resource for graduate students as well as veteran and beginning clinicians across disciplines, including family studies, family therapy, gender studies, public health, social policy, social work and child and adolescent psychology as well as related disciplines across mental health and educational services.

This innovative book explores the different ways in which dual-earner couples in contemporary welfare states plan for, realize and justify their divisions of work and care during the transition to parenthood. Providing a unique comparative, longitudinal and qualitative analysis of new parents in eight European countries, this timely book explicitly locates couples' beliefs and negotiations in the wider context of national institutional structures. Compelling evidence is provided, demonstrating that the ways and degrees to which new parents can realize their work-care plans and ideals systematically relate to the support structures and resources available from employers, families and the state. A key focus is on couples that act in a non-normative way compared to their national, gender cultural context. New Parents in Europe will be of great value to sociology, political science and economics scholars alike and, with its use of cutting-edge methodology, will prove to be a valuable resource for policy makers. Contributors include: J. Alsarve, S. Bertolini, K. Boye, S. Buchler, A. Dechant, M. Evertsson, N. Girardin, D. Grunow, D. Hanappi, M.J. Gonzalez, T. Jurado-Guerrero, I. Lapuerta, J.-M. Le Goff, T. Martin-Garcia, R. Musumeci, M. Naldini, O. Nesporova, M. Reimann, A. Rinklake, C. Roman, E.-M. Schmidt, M, Seiz, P.M. Torrioni, S. Vogl, U. Zartler

Are family influences on youth declining in importance? Are parents less important in shaping the life orientations and achievements of youth than they were a generation ago? What about the consequences of divorce? How Families Still Matter casts doubt on the conventional wisdom about family decline during the last decades of the twentieth century. The authors draw from the longest-running longitudinal study of families in the world--the Longitudinal Study of Generations, conducted at the University of Southern California--to discover whether parents are really less critical in shaping the life choices and achievements of their children than they were a generation ago. They compare the influence of parents on the Baby Boomer generation with that of Baby Boomer parents on their own Generation-X children--and their findings are surprising. Vern Bengtson holds the AARP/University Chair in Gerontology and is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Bengtson has received the Reuben Hill Award from the National Council of Family Relations (1980 and 1986); the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association's section on aging (1995); the Robert W. Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America (1996); and the Ernest W. Burgess Award from the National Council on Family Relation (1998). Timothy J. Biblarz is Associate Professor and Graduate Director in the Sociology Department at the University of Southern California. His papers have appeared in the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Social Forces, and other journals. Robert E.L. Roberts is Professor of Sociology at California State University, San Marcos. His articles have appeared in Social Psychology Quarterly, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Sociological Quarterly.

In the popular imagination, the twenty years after World War II are associated with simpler, happier, more family-focused living. We think of stereotypical baby boom families like the Cleavers--white, suburban, and well on their way to middle-class affluence. For these couples and their children, a happy, stable family life provided an antidote to the anxieties and uncertainties of the emerging nuclear age.

But not everyone looked or lived like the Cleavers. For those who could not have children, or have as many children as they wanted, the postwar baby boom proved a source of social stigma and personal pain. Further, in 1950 roughly one in three Americans made below middle-class incomes, and over fifteen million lived under Jim Crow segregation. For these individuals, home life was not an oasis but a challenge, intimately connected to the era's many political and social upheavals.

"Everybody Else" provides a comparative analysis of diverse postwar families and examines the lives and case records of men and women who applied to adopt or provide pre-adoptive foster care in the 1940s and 1950s. It considers an array of individuals--both black and white, middle and working class--who found themselves on the margins of a social world that privileged family membership. These couples wanted adoptive and foster children in order to achieve a sense of personal mission and meaning, as well as a deeper feeling of belonging to their communities. But their quest for parenthood also highlighted the many inequities of that era. These individuals' experiences seeking children reveal that the baby boom family was about much more than "togetherness" or a quiet house in the suburbs; it also shaped people's ideas about the promises and perils of getting ahead in postwar America.

This book analyses the arrival of emerging and traditional information and technology for public and economic use in Latin America. It focuses on the governmental, economic and security issues and the study of the complex relationship between citizens and government. The book is divided into three parts: * 'Digital data and privacy, prospects and barriers' centers on the debates among the right of privacy and the loss of intimacy in the Internet, * 'Homeland security and human rights' focuses on how novel technologies such as drones and autonomous weapons systems reconfigure the strategies of police authorities and organized crime, * 'Labor Markets, digital media and emerging technologies' emphasize the legal, economic and social perils and challenges caused by the increased presence of social media, blockchain-based applications, artificial intelligence and automation technologies in the Latin American economy. This first volume in a two volume set will be important reading for scholars and students of governance in Latin American, the protection of human rights and the use of technology to combat crime and the new advances of digital economy in the region.

This book was originally published in 1985. Beginning with the Qur'an, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba confronts the question of male supremacy in Islam, and the strict separation of the masculine and the feminine. He gives an account of purification practices, of Islamic attitudes towards homosexuality, concubinage, legal marriage and of the sexual taboos laid down by the Qur'an. He assesses present-day sexual practice, including eroticism, misogyny and mysticism and concludes that the sexual alienation - and even oppression - of modern Muslim women is the result not of the Islamic vision of sexuality, but of social and economic pressures.

Exploring Twins presents an analysis of twinship considered as a specifically social phenomenom. Drawing upon a wide range of interdisciplinary, historical, and cross-cultural data, Elizabeth Stewart argues that in both traditional and modern societies, twinship represents a recurrent anomaly that calls into question the assumptions around which different types of society are organized.

This work is an attempt to begin the process of closing the theoretical gap in our knowledge about ourselves, challenging the current thought on human development and behavior. A psychosocial/biological approach is used to explore the influence of instinct on human nature. Models to assess behavior and to develop individual and socially therapeutic interventions are proposed.

This collection centres on the experiences of disabled children and young people and aims to develop theories about their childhoods. The powerful first-hand accounts by disabled children, family members and reflections by disabled adults are aimed to inspire the reader to think and, perhaps, act in positive and productive ways about all children's lives. The authors oppose the historical global imposition of problematic views of disability and childhood and offer open discussion of responsive and ethical research approaches. New ways of thinking about disabled children's childhoods in a global context demand poverty reduction and approaches that support families and communities to recognise the contributions disabled children make.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2015 Sex in China introduces readers to some of the dramatic shifts that have taken place in Chinese sexual behaviours and attitudes, and public discussions of sex, since the 1980s. The book explores what it means to talk about 'sex' in present-day China, where sex and sexuality are more and more visible in everyday life. Elaine Jeffreys and Haiqing Yu situate China's changing sexual culture, and how it is governed, in the socio-political history of the People's Republic of China. They demonstrate that Chinese governmental authorities and policies do not set out strictly to repress 'sex'; they also create spaces for the emergence of new sexual subjects and subjectivities. They discuss the complexities surrounding the ongoing explosion of commentary on sex and sexuality in the PRC, and the emergence of new sexual behaviours and mores. Sex in China offers clear, critical coverage of sex-related issues that are a focus of public concern and debate in China - chapters focus on sex studies; marriage and family planning; youth and sex(iness); gay, lesbian and queer discourses and identities; commercial sex; and HIV/AIDS. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars both of modern China and of sex and sexualities, who wish to understand the role that 'sex' plays in contemporary China.

..".represents a thought-provoking contribution to the burgeoning literature on adoption, and will be a valuable resource for any who are currently working in this area, or in the fields of kinship or transnationalism in general." . Melissa Demian in JRAI "Transnational adoption is growing phenomenon and Norway has led the way in its legal and social development. In this pioneering study, Norwegian scholar, Signe Howell, brings to the subject not only anthropological insight but the personal experience of an adoptive parent. Her remarkable book is based on comprehensive research both in Norway and in the countries of origin of adopted children, throwing new light on the way that the children identify as Norwegians despite the tendency of adults to associate with their birth places...." . John R. Gillis, Rutgers University "Howell's fascinating work on transnational adoption provides real insight into its experiential, cultural, psychological and legal complexities worldwide and has important implications for our theories of kinship and personhood.... The book deserves to be read not only by anthropologists interested in kinship, but by everyone who wants to understand children and to do what is best for them, including policy-makers, developmental and child psychologists, educators and social workers." . Christina Toren, Director, C-FAR, Brunel University "The Kinning of Foreigners takes the literature on adoption into an entirely new realm by linking theories of identity and of kinship to changes in the practices and ideologies of moving children from one nation to another. ... T]he book shows how rhetoric developed in the West forms understandings of the child, of family, and of kinship throughout the world-a modern version of imperialism. Throughout her scrupulous discussion of national and international policies, laws, and competing interests, Howell never loses sight of the intimate individual aspect of adoption.... The book should be on the shelves of experts, scholars, lawyers, politicians-and, of course, any person who has ever had the exhilarating experience of kinning, or creating a relationship that permanently, transforms the self." . Judith Schachter Modell], Carnegie Mellon University Signe Howell is professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. She obtained her D.Phil. from the University of Oxford and has been a lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely on various aspects of social organization, religion, ritual and kinship.

"Home Front" examines the gendered exploitation of labor in the household from a postmodern Marxian perspective. The authors of this volume use the anti-foundationalist Marxian economic theories first formulated by Stephen Resnick and Richard Wolff to explore power, domination, and exploitation in the modern household.

In November 1998, the Hawaii and Alaska electorates voted to amend their state constitutions so that same-sex marriages would not have to be recognized. Rather than end the controversy surrounding same-sex marriages, the passage of these amendments will only spur more litigation, because the referenda themselves implicate constitutional guarantees and because amending a state constitution cannot lessen federal constitutional protections. Since same-sex marriages promote many of the same individual and state interests that opposite-sex marriages do, states will be unable to justify their same-sex marriage bans if those rationales are closely examined. When challenged, the recent constitutional amendments in Hawaii and Alaska may well be held unconstitutional by the state supreme courts on federal constitutional grounds, although ultimately the United States Supreme Court will likely be asked to resolve the relevant issues.

Suppose that state same-sex marriage bans are held not to violate federal constitutional guarantees, but that one state nonetheless recognizes such unions. The other states will be permitted to refuse to recognize marriages celebrated in that state only if certain conditions have been met. Contrary view notwithstanding, the law of nature exception will not apply in this case. Further, even the Defense of Marriage Act will likely not afford states the right to refuse to recognize any and all same-sex marriages validly celebrated in sister states.