This dissertation examines the histories of international adoption and child sponsorship in China from the 1930s to the 1950s to illustrate China’s crucial but unrecognized role in shaping the politics and practices of global humanitarianism. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Chinese child welfare organizations developed a new form of humanitarian fundraising in which private citizens across the world “adopted” Chinese children by funding their lives at orphanages in China. Under the adoption model, Chinese children and their foreign “foster parents” built personal relationships through the exchange of photographs, gifts, and translated letters that used familial terms of address. The relationships forged between children and their foster parents constituted a new mode of affective and material exchange across national, racial, and cultural boundaries that I call “global intimacy.” At the same time, the adoption plan was also deeply ideological, embedding the relationships between children and their sponsors within the politics of WWII and the Cold War. At once emotional and economic, humanitarian and political, the adoption plan transformed the emotional loyalties of children into a key battleground on the affective terrain of these global conflicts. The emergence of the adoption plan as one of the most successful methods of humanitarian fundraising in China precipitated a broader “intimate turn” in global humanitarian practice. During WWII, Chinese child welfare organizations developed new discursive and material practices—as well as new global administrative structures—that made the adoption of Asian children into a distinct form of humanitarian rescue. After the war, an American organization called China’s Children Fund utilized the rhetoric of Christian love to transform the adoption plan into one of the largest humanitarian programs in Asia, systematizing the transnational flow of gifts and letters to create a paradoxical bureaucracy of global intimacy. When the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, rather than dismiss the adoption plan as a tool of the reactionary Nationalist Party and their American imperialist allies, they instead sought to transform it into a centerpiece of a new form of “revolutionary humanitarianism.” However, during the Korean War the CCP ultimately decided to dismantle all foreign humanitarian institutions in China, leading transnational aid organizations to again remake the adoption plan as a lynchpin of a new “Cold War humanitarianism” across East Asia. “Adopted by the World” sheds light on the global history of humanitarianism, the intertwining of intimate relations and international relations during the WWII and Cold War eras, and the political significance of children in modern Chinese history. By analyzing how Chinese child welfare institutions utilized children’s letters to mold international opinion of China, I show how children were enlisted as key actors within the political campaigns of both the Nationalist and Communist parties. Engaging with recent scholarship that has argued that the provision of global humanitarian aid served the Cold War foreign policy interests of Western powers, this dissertation explores how the recipients and critics of humanitarian aid in China both shaped and challenged the post-WWII global humanitarian order.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Intercountry adoption emerged in Australia in the1970s, at the end of the Vietnam War and with each new decade the adoption ‘community’ and broader society have become more aware of the challenges and complexities of the adoptee experience. It is an area where contemporary preoccupations with issues of identity, kinship relations and concerns about ‘race’ and cultural belonging are being played out. Research on intercountry adoption has, until recent years, been primarily conducted by researchers in the professions of psychology, social work, law and child development. As a consequence these professions have to a large extent influenced and driven public debate and policy in this area. Issues about cultural and racial identity have generally been discussed and problematised either at an individual or familial level ¬how adoptees negotiate issues of racial difference in particular socio-political, historical and cultural contexts is usually missing from these accounts. As intercountry adoption is intricately connected to society’s ideas about race, culture, ethnicity, kinship and belonging -to family and to nation -the disciplines of sociology and anthropology have an important research role to play. This study seeks to problematise the narrow definition of identity that adoptees are usually subject to, attempting to move beyond essentialist notions about the ‘loss of identity’ and ‘loss of culture’ associated with the adoption experience which has tended to promote a discourse of victimisation. Rather, the study asks questions about how particular discourses of race, adoption and identity have impacted on adoptees’ lives and the different modes of belonging adoptees employ to manage their positions of difference. This is a comparative qualitative study using multiple methods of social inquiry. It focuses on two core groups of Australian intercountry adoptees -an adolescent and an adult group -who were born in Vietnam, Korea, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Their life histories are compared by placing their experiences in the broader socio-political and historical contexts of Australia’s immigration policies, adoption policies and history of race relations. Their hybrid experiences are also compared to some transracial adoptees in other Western nations and to some other transnational groups, within the broader body of work on postcolonial identity construction, in an effort to illuminate how intercountry adoptees’ share the ‘third space’ with others who also live through issues about cultural authenticity and the essentialism often associated with identity formation. The study concludes with an alternative reading of the intercountry adoptee experience. It suggests that some adoptees are managing to (re)invent and (re)define their fluid, hybrid identities within the broader context of culturally diverse youth and adults in multicultural Australia and by their membership within other diasporic movements. The study points to the importance of appropriate social support including support from peer groups, family, other adoptees, and the significance of place to adoptees’ sense of belonging. ‘Cultural identity’, as the often quoted Stuart Hall (1990:225) suggests, “is a matter of ‘becoming’ as well as of ‘being’” and “it belongs to the future as much as to the past”.

Higher Sites has been designed as a fully functioning business. The appendix of this creative project paper includes Higher Sites' full business plan. The business plan includes projected revenue and profit for the next three years.Higher Sites 101 is a two-part DVD set designed to familiarize new Higher Sites employees with the company. Disc I explains the services that Higher Sites offers to adoptive parents. It also walks the viewer through the process of creating adoption videos using the Higher Sites method. Example videos are included. Disc II is a data DVD that includes full-screen QuickTime movies. The movies demonstrate to the viewer how to perform specific tasks in Final Cut Pro, iDVD and DVD Studio Pro. It is necessary for the viewer to watch these QuickTime movies on a monitor that is 21 inches or larger. / Department of Telecommunications

The adoption of Korean children has played a significant role in the practice of intercountry adoption in Australia since the 1970s and represents the majority of overseas born children adopted into Australia. Its influence on policy and practice is explored in this thesis through the Queensland experience. From its outset the adoption of children from overseas has been characterised by polarised perspectives and vested interests. Actor Network Theory, the theoretical lens through which this phenomenon is viewed, allows for the exploration of controversies and multiple perspectives that have featured in over thirty years of Korean intercountry adoption practice in Australia. This thesis aims to identify which actor networks were influential in the emergence, diffusion and continuation of Korean intercountry adoption; and to explore the translations, an important concept in Actor Network Theory, and the tactics used by these networks to spread particular discourse to meet network goals. The methodology is qualitative and approaches Korean intercountry adoption as a case study. The data corpus, collected from 2004 to 2007 comprised text and interviews. Text included Queensland government archival records; submissions provided to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services Overseas Adoption in Australia 2005 and public hearing transcripts; parliamentary documents; media reports; computer-mediated communications such as internet sources and email discussion groups. Interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from interest groups and organisations with administrative roles in intercountry adoption practice in Australia. Korean intercountry adoption has proved influential in developing expectations concerning how intercountry adoption should be practised in Australia. Three actor networks, proponent, opponent and nonpartisan were identified during the diffusion and continuance periods. Actor Network Theory helped understand how the proponent network became dominant in the Australian context. A number of highly effective tactics have been used to expand and increase the influence of the proponent network through translations. However, a number of threats to continuation such as the growth of the opponent network and the promotion of Korean domestic adoption have emerged. Actors have responded to these threats in a number of ways. Detours have been proposed by proponent actors to help them reach their goals though these may bring unintended consequences. An Actor Network Theory perspective reveals the important role of the Internet; helps understand how controversies are created and perpetuated; how intercountry adoption has become politicised in Australia; and highlights the risks to child centred and knowledge based practice that politicisation brings. The significance of this study lies in the insights provided by exploring power interrelationships between actor networks and how these shape particular phenomenon, in this case, Korean intercountry adoption. Intercountry adoption in Australia is poorly understood at a macro level as are the controversies surrounding it. Its practice has been heavily influenced by the interests of the dominant network with scant attention to research in the local context. Actor Network Theory that allows for the inclusion of human and nonhuman actors such as the Internet has proven useful for developing contemporary understandings of such a complex, global phenomenon. These understandings provide opportunities for individuals, groups and governments to address controversy in ways than do not contribute to its perpetuation and to refocus their attentions on the factors that contribute to the relinquishment of children in the first instance. This thesis highlights how politically driven agendas that serve the interests of one network can marginalise voices that bring more complex understandings to the intercountry adoption phenomenon. An Actor Network Theory analysis exposes the lack of investment by governments, organisations and individuals in community programs and services that address the causes of child relinquishment and empower Korean families and communities to seek their own solutions.

The adoption of Korean children has played a significant role in the practice of intercountry adoption in Australia since the 1970s and represents the majority of overseas born children adopted into Australia. Its influence on policy and practice is explored in this thesis through the Queensland experience. From its outset the adoption of children from overseas has been characterised by polarised perspectives and vested interests. Actor Network Theory, the theoretical lens through which this phenomenon is viewed, allows for the exploration of controversies and multiple perspectives that have featured in over thirty years of Korean intercountry adoption practice in Australia. This thesis aims to identify which actor networks were influential in the emergence, diffusion and continuation of Korean intercountry adoption; and to explore the translations, an important concept in Actor Network Theory, and the tactics used by these networks to spread particular discourse to meet network goals. The methodology is qualitative and approaches Korean intercountry adoption as a case study. The data corpus, collected from 2004 to 2007 comprised text and interviews. Text included Queensland government archival records; submissions provided to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services Overseas Adoption in Australia 2005 and public hearing transcripts; parliamentary documents; media reports; computer-mediated communications such as internet sources and email discussion groups. Interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from interest groups and organisations with administrative roles in intercountry adoption practice in Australia. Korean intercountry adoption has proved influential in developing expectations concerning how intercountry adoption should be practised in Australia. Three actor networks, proponent, opponent and nonpartisan were identified during the diffusion and continuance periods. Actor Network Theory helped understand how the proponent network became dominant in the Australian context. A number of highly effective tactics have been used to expand and increase the influence of the proponent network through translations. However, a number of threats to continuation such as the growth of the opponent network and the promotion of Korean domestic adoption have emerged. Actors have responded to these threats in a number of ways. Detours have been proposed by proponent actors to help them reach their goals though these may bring unintended consequences. An Actor Network Theory perspective reveals the important role of the Internet; helps understand how controversies are created and perpetuated; how intercountry adoption has become politicised in Australia; and highlights the risks to child centred and knowledge based practice that politicisation brings. The significance of this study lies in the insights provided by exploring power interrelationships between actor networks and how these shape particular phenomenon, in this case, Korean intercountry adoption. Intercountry adoption in Australia is poorly understood at a macro level as are the controversies surrounding it. Its practice has been heavily influenced by the interests of the dominant network with scant attention to research in the local context. Actor Network Theory that allows for the inclusion of human and nonhuman actors such as the Internet has proven useful for developing contemporary understandings of such a complex, global phenomenon. These understandings provide opportunities for individuals, groups and governments to address controversy in ways than do not contribute to its perpetuation and to refocus their attentions on the factors that contribute to the relinquishment of children in the first instance. This thesis highlights how politically driven agendas that serve the interests of one network can marginalise voices that bring more complex understandings to the intercountry adoption phenomenon. An Actor Network Theory analysis exposes the lack of investment by governments, organisations and individuals in community programs and services that address the causes of child relinquishment and empower Korean families and communities to seek their own solutions.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 2, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-167).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Colorado State University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

"The influx of children adopted into the United States from other countries has increased the need for social workers experienced in practice techniques that asssist in building rapport between the parents and children in these newly formed families. This study explored the use of employing the kinetic family drawing as a tool to build rapport between parents and children. This was an exploratory multiple case design. Six families participated in the process of drawing a picture of their family engaged in an activity together. It was anticipated that the drawings would be an effective tool to build rapport between parent and child."

The purpose of this study was to examine the adjustment of older children and adolescents adopted from Eastern Europe and the impact of their preadoption history and family’s functioning on their adjustment. This is a follow-up study of families first surveyed in 2005 with an addition of new families. One hundred and forty-five families reporting on 194 adopted children (9 to 19 years; 104 girls) participated in this study at Time 2. The project was conducted as an internet-based survey. Parents and adopted children reported on children’s emotional, behavioral and social problems (CBCL and YSR), as well as family environment (FACES-III and PEQ). Children also reported on their attachment to parents (IPPA) and their preoccupation with adoption (ADQ). Results revealed that children adopted as infants or toddlers (18 months and younger) evidenced lower problem behaviors and higher competence scores than children adopted at later ages. History of preadoption abuse and/or neglect also played a role. Children without such history scored better on all problem and competency scales than their peers with reported history of either abuse or neglect. Relationships with the adoptive parents and family environment also contributed to better adjustment in this sample of adopted children. Children from more cohesive families displayed lower levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. Additionally, less conflict between adolescents and their parents was associated with lower levels of these problems. Adolescents with higher attachment levels to their parents self-reported lower internalizing and externalizing problems. Adolescents’ interest in their adoptions is a healthy thing; however, excessive preoccupation was associated with higher levels of internalizing behaviors, such as anxiety and depression. Preoccupation with adoption was not related to externalizing behaviors, as reported by children. This study replicates findings of previous studies of intercountry adoption of children from Eastern Europe. Implications of these findings are discussed.