How Homes and Families Are Co-produced in the Transnational Adoption Home Study in Spain

Can you tell whether I will be a good parent by visiting my apartment? 

In considering whether or not to approve adoption applications, social workers and psychologists carry out a home study – a visit to the home where the child is intended to live. Despite the anxiety surrounding this process, most applicants receive approval. But from time to time when applicants are denied, a key reason cited is the adequacy of the house. In a new study published in the September issue of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 23(3), Leinaweaver and her co-authors analyze the unintended conceptual outcomes of this symbolic exaltation of the home in Spain, which for much of the 2000s had the highest transnational adoption rate in the world. 

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