The third edition of The Politics of Adoption , like its predecessors, owes a great deal
to Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes 1 and to my other colleagues at the Australian
Centre of Philanthropy and Nonprofi t Studies. For their support and companionship
I remain extremely grateful.
The many academics, senior managers and others, whose contribution to the fi rst
and second editions did much to ensure the appearance of the third, have previously
been acknowledged but the debt of gratitude for their efforts continues. 2 This edition
has similarly benefi ted from the kindness of those who took the time and trouble to
read chapters and offer comments. The geographic and cultural spread of their contributions
bears testimony to the international nature of this exercise. The sense of a
shared collegiate endeavour, of time and effort selfl essly invested by busy people to
help me get this right, was very encouraging. While not suggesting that they have in
any way ‘signed off’ these chapters, I do acknowledge that their contributions were
enormously helpful. Although it is not possible to render a full account of the debt
owed to so many it would be quite wrong not to acknowledge the particular contribution
of a few.