The Commodification and Online Marketing of Children in Transnational Adoption

Elizabeth H Milovidov, Vilna Francine Bashi Treitler

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The same global system that created inequalities in wealth among nations also created a globalized and systemic hierarchy of races by which the value of humans (including potential adoptees) are judged. Our concerns focus on the racialization and commodification of children made available for adoption between nations on opposite sides of the wealth/race divide. In particular, this chapter interrogates relations of power and race between persons in sending and receiving nations as they shape how the Internet is used to market children available for adoption. First, we briefly examine global racial and socioeconomic disparities between sending and receiving nations in the context of the racial politics of intercountry adoption.1 Afterward, we define and analyze photolistings and web advertising, two ways that the Internet promotes prospective adoptions, and remark upon the racializing implications of each. Finally, we comment upon photo listings and web advertising in the context of the (economic, political and racialized) inequalities of power between sending and receiving nations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPalgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Chapter5
Pages84-111
Number of pages28
ISBN (Print)978-1349446087
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

Publication series

NamePalgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life
ISSN (Print)2731-6440
ISSN (Electronic)2731-6459

Keywords

  • Adoptive Parent
  • Birth Mother
  • Hague Convention
  • International Adoption
  • Prospective Parent

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Gender Studies
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Life-span and Life-course Studies

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