Sonia Bookman

• SOC 2010 - Critical Issues in Sociology
• SOC 2260 - Cities and Urban Life
• SOC 3460 - Sociology of Consumption 
• SOC 3580 - Media, Culture, and Society
• SOC 7160 - Sociology of Cosmopolitanism
• SOC 7160 - Consumer Culture

Sonia Bookman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba. She completed her PhD at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research focuses on the intersections of brands, culture, consumption and everyday life, and has been published in journals such as the Journal of Consumer Culture and Cultural Sociology. She is currently working on her SSHRC-funded project “Cosmopolitan Consumption, Markets, and Culture in Canadian Society.”

• PhD (Sociology), University of Manchester, 2006
• MA (Economics, Development Studies), University of Manchester, 2001
• BA Honours (Sociology, International Development Studies, Women's Studies), University of Winnipeg, 2000

Research interests

• Ordinary cosmopolitanism
• Consumer culture
• Brands and branding
• Urban space and sociality
• Film and the urban imaginary

Research summary

Dr. Bookman’s research interests fall within the field of cultural sociology. She is particularly interested in the social and cultural implications of the variety of brands and branding, especially as they relate to cosmopolitan consumption and class. She is also interested in the interplay of film and society, and how media such as film construct an urban imaginary. Along with these research interests, she has a general interest in cultural theory. Her expertise on consumer culture, brands and branding and cosmopolitanism contribute to the department’s area of specialization: Culture, Identity, and Belonging.

Research affiliations/groups

• Principal Investigator, “Cosmopolitan Consumption, Markets, and Culture in Canadian Society,” Cosmopolitan Consumption.

Books

• Bookman, S. 2017. Brands and the City: Entanglements and Implications for Urban Life. London: Routledge.
• Kohm, S., Bookman, S., and Greenhill, P., (Eds.) 2017. Screening Justice: Canadian Crime Films, Culture and Society. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.

Journal articles

• Bookman, S. 2023. “The Forks Market: Cosmopolitan Canopy, Conviviality, and Class,” for the special issue, “Improvisation, Conviviality, and Conflict in Everyday Encounters in Public Space,” Urban Planning 8 (4): 31-41.
• Bookman, S. and Hall, T. 2022. “Global Brands, Cosmopolitan Socialization, and Consumption: The Case of IKEA and the ‘Stuff’ of Ordinary Cosmopolitanism,” Youth and Globalization 4: 139-164. 
• Bookman, S., Mackenzie, K., and Bernier, A. 2022. “Crime Film and the City: Imagining Toronto through Entanglements of Place, Culture, and Crime,” American Review of Canadian Studies 52(1): 46-63. 
• Masuda, J. and Bookman, S. 2018 (online first, 2016). Neighbourhood Branding and the Right to the City. Progress in Human Geography 42(2): 165-182. 
• Bookman, S. 2014. "Urban Brands, Culture and Social Division: Creativity, Tension and Differentiation Among Middle Class Consumers." Journal of Consumer Culture 14(3): 324-342.
• Bookman, S. 2014 (online first, 2013). "Brands and Urban Life: Specialty Coffee, Consumers and the Co- creation of Urban Café Sociality." Space and Culture 17(1): 85-99.
• Bookman, S. and Woolford, A. 2013. "Policing (by) the Brand: Defining Order in Winnipeg's Exchange District." Social and Cultural Geography 14 (3): 300-317.
• Bookman. S. 2013 (online first, 2012). "Branded Cosmopolitanisms: ‘Global’ Coffee Brands and the Co-creation of ‘Cosmopolitan Cool’." Cultural Sociology 7 (1): 56-72.
• Bookman, S. 2013. "Coffee Brands, Class and Culture in a Canadian City." European Journal of Cultural Studies 16 (4): 405-423.

Book chapters

• Bookman, S. 2020. "Pumpkin Spice Lattes: Marking the Seasons with Brands." In T. Davidson and O. Park (Eds.) Seasonal Sociology (pp. 49-66). Toronto: Toronto University Press. 
• Bookman, S. 2016. "Cultural Sociology: Brands." In Inglis, D. and Almila, A. (Eds.) The Sage Handbook of Cultural Sociology (pp. 578-589). London: Sage.