Seasonal Sociology

Life in Canada is marked, celebrated, enjoyed, and dreaded in ways that respond very specifically to the seasons. Sociological thinking allows people to ask questions about things that are otherwise just taken-for-granted. Thinking about the seasons sociologically opens up a unique perspective for studying and understanding social life. Each chapter in this book approaches the seasons and the passage of time as a way in which to explore issues of sociological interest. The authors use seasonality as a device that can bridge, in fascinating ways, small-scale interpersonal interactions and large formal institutional structures. The contemporary, Canadian studies in this book are wide-ranging and include analyses of: pumpkin-spice lattes, policing in schools, law and colonialism, summer cottages, seasonal-affective disorder, new year's resolutions, and Vaisakhi celebrations, to name a few. Seasonal Sociology offers provocative, new ways for thinking about the nature our collective lives.