ADOPTION AS CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP: THEORETICAL APPROACHES
The article proves the necessity of distinguishing between biological and social relationship in a sociological study of such phenomenon as adoption. The degree of biological and social relationship identity appears a criterion for successful adoption. As adoption is a complex multidimensional phenomenon, the difficulty of its analysis is determined by the need of finding an appropriate integrative methodology. The paper presents critical analysis of the existing theoretical approaches in sociology, which are able to reflect the duality of social life as the dialectics of the objective and the subjective. The analysis makes it possible to identify a common methodological basis, which lies in the idea that the society is created by humans and their activity. The difference between the activity and constructivist approaches lies in the field of goal and sense. The authors rove the effectiveness of the constructivist approach as proposed by P. Bergman and T. Luckmann in the study of the phenomenon of adoption. The idea of adoption arises on the basis of an average person's knowledge, and has a concrete historical character. The adoption institutionalization is established within a certain symbolic universe. The adoption institution transformations as well as changes in the essence of adoption as daily practice are determined by the redefinition of the reality and the changes of the symbolic universe. In pre-revolutionary Russia an illegitimate child had no rights and protection by law, whereas the Soviet authorities recognized its full citizenship. Thus, the constructivist approach makes it possible to see what adoption is today and what lies behind this phenomenon.