An auto-ethnographic account of interactional practices in adoptive family relationships.

Lewis, Christine and Warin, Jo (2019) An auto-ethnographic account of interactional practices in adoptive family relationships. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This autoethnographic narrative explores the temporal, situated nature of interactions between myself as an adoptee with my adult adopted children as well as those between myself and my birth father and mother. Epiphanies experienced are further synthesised with evidence from 10 female adoptee/adopted mother participant’s in confirming kinship affinities. Selecting and blending analytic and evocative autoethnographic approaches is valuable for two reasons. Firstly, the processes of reflexive self-introspection, self-observation and dialogue with participants has resulted in expanding my understanding of how complex adoptive/birth kinship affinities ebb and flow. As a result, there is a critical connection between recognising, analysing and responding to kinship affinities and personal growth. Lying at the intersection of the self and other this study contributes to deepening insights around the gendered nature of fixed, sensory, negotiated and ethereal kinship affinities. So, informing our understanding of relationships in families generally and between adoptive parents and adoptees specifically.