Seasonal Sociology

Book excerpt: Life in Canada is marked, celebrated, enjoyed, and dreaded in ways that respond specifically to the seasons. Sociological thinking allows people to ask questions about things that may otherwise be taken for granted. Thinking about the seasons sociologically opens up a unique perspective for studying and understanding social life. Each chapter in this collection approaches the seasons and the passage of time as a way 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. These contemporary, Canadian case studies 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, Vaisakhi celebrations, and more. Seasonal Sociology offers provocative new ways of thinking about the nature of our collective lives.