Full Description
Life in Canada is shaped by the seasons - marked, celebrated, enjoyed, and sometimes dreaded in ways that respond directly to the changing cycles in nature. Sociological thinking encourages us to question the aspects of everyday life that we may otherwise take for granted.
Seasonal Sociology takes a sociological approach to thinking about the seasons, providing a unique perspective for understanding social life. Each chapter in this collection explores key issues of sociological interest through the passage of time and seasonal change. The authors wield seasonality as a powerful tool that can bridge small-scale interpersonal interactions with large-scale institutional structures.
This collection of contemporary Canadian case studies is wide-ranging and analyses topics such as pumpkin spice lattes, policing in schools, law and colonialism, summer cottages, seasonal affective disorder, Vaisakhi celebrations, and more. The second edition introduces new chapters on Labour Day and organized labour, disability and online dating, maple sugar shacks, seasonal agricultural work, wildfires, and social movements like Pride and Black Lives Matter. Seasonal Sociology ultimately offers fresh, provocative ways of thinking about the nature of our collective lives.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Tonya K. Davidson, Tara Milbrandt, and Ondine Park
FALL
1 The Rideau Canal in Fall: Understanding Ontology and Epistemology with Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Zoe Todd
2 Back to School Season: Schools and the Social Organization of Crime
Heather Rollwagen
3 Pumpkin Spice Lattes: Marking the Seasons with Brands
Sonia Bookman
4 Labour Day Weekend: The Shifts and the Cycles of Work
Susan Cake, Jason Foster, and Bob Barnetson
5 A Long Weekend of Rest and Labour: Thanksgiving, Holiday Body Work, and the Holiday Body
Heidi Bickis
WINTER
6 Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): The Medicalization of Winter Sadness
Alissa Overend
7 Season of Dreaded Joys: Adaptation, Enchantment, and Solidarity in a "Winter" City
Tara Milbrandt
8 Cupid's Keyboard: Disabled People's Experiences with Online Dating
Alan Santinele Martino
9 Extending Law's Reach: Winter, Accusations, and the Colonial Encounter
Matthew P. Unger
10 Cracked Ice: Hockey, Whiteness, and Masculinity in Sports
Nicole Neverson
SPRING
11 The Myth of the Sugar Shack: Identity, Nature, and Maple Syrup
Emma Bider
12 Spring Babies, Summer Weddings, Fall Divorces, and Winter Deaths: Seasons and Populations
Rania Tfaily
13 Alternative Spring Break: The Politics of Doing Good in a Globalized World
Nathaniel Laywine and Alan Sears
14 Peach Blossoms and Precarious Work: Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program on the Niagara Peninsula
Kristin Lozanski
15 Rites of Spring: Multiculturalism and the Celebration of Vaisakhi in Vancouver
Bonar Buffam
SUMMER
16 Wedding Season: The White Wedding as a Cultural Ritual of Heteronormativity
Ondine Park
17 Summer in Cottage Country: Expectations and Experiences of Canadian Nature
Tonya K. Davidson
18 Burning Season: The (New) Conflagrations of Summer
Mark Hudson
19 Social Movements Sizzle
James Cairns
20 Summer's Gains and Losses: Children, Social Class, and Learning
Patrizia Albanese
Glossary
Contributors
Index
