Investing in Enchantment

Whether a modest rural lakeside cabin or a multi-million dollar ski chalet, family vacation homes can be settings for relaxing, memory-making, attending family-defining events and gatherings, and participating in activities in amenity-rich tourist destinations. But they are also places where we can see the enactment of changing patterns in families, shifting definitions of community, and increasingly complex intersections between the family and the economy, especially when these spaces may be rented out to other families seeking their own vacations. Whether for personal use or economic gain – or somewhere in between – family vacation homes are vivid settings that show the importance of spaces and places in our understanding of our social world. But how? How do family vacation homes – their existence, their meaning, their ownership, their use – tell a larger story of shifting realities for families in contemporary society, especially given the impact COVID- 19 and the sharing economy have had on travel, the meaning of home, and community connectedness?

To answer this question, author and sociologist Michelle Janning innovatively updates the already-rich body of knowledge on vacation homes and communities by integrating new data gathered from mixed methods research, alongside compelling and complex stories that cleverly elucidate the vacation home story today as it relates directly to changing family patterns.