LYCOS RETRIEVER 
George Ritzer
built 622 days ago
George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland where he has ... been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the 2000 Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association. He has served as Chair of two sections of the American Sociological Association - Organizations and Occupations and Theoretical Sociology. In addition to The McDonaldization of Society (1993, 1996, 2000; translated into a dozen languages), his other efforts to apply social theory to the everyday realms of the economy and consumption include Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society (1995), The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions (1998), and Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption (1999). At the other end of the spectrum, his contributions to metatheorizing include Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science (1975), Toward an Integrated Sociological Paradigm (1981), and Metatheorizing in Sociology (1991). He has recently edited The Blackwell Companion to Major Social Theorists (2000), as well as The Handbook of Social Theory (with Barry Smart), and is co-founding editor (with Don Slater) of the Journal of Consumer Culture.
Source:
George Ritzer is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. He received the 2000 Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Award from the American Sociological Association and has chaired its sections on Theoretical Sociology and Organizations and Occupations. Among his most recent books are The McDonaldization of Society, New Century Edition, Enchanting a Disenchanted World , and, with Barry Smart, The Handbook of Social Theory.
Source:
George Ritzer, Deborah Madsen, Scott Lucas and George McKay, with moderator Steve Mills (Keele University) finally took the platform for the final plenary session: “New Directions for American Studies: Teaching Global America Without Frontiers”. If HEFC funded events must have feedback forms, then teaching conferences have to end with a plenary session. Responding to the day’s presentations it was soon clear that not only was Americanisation still highly problematic, but so was its relationship to UK-based American Studies. Nevertheless certain overarching themes did emerge. Scott Lucas was afraid that discussion of culture, even when dealing with corporate activities, still found it difficult to engage sufficiently with political power. Despite a rhetoric of privatisation and free enterprise the role of the state has been enhanced over the last decade and American Studies not just discussions of Americanisation need to take that on board more fully.
Source:
George Ritzer, writing from within the tradition of Max Weber, has pointed in a very different direction. The fast food restaurant in general, and McDonald's in particular, becomes the paradigm for the way society is moving. Standardisation, rationalisation, cost cutting, the triumph of quantity over quality, predictability, mass production and scripts dominate systems and institutions. Make the customer do the work by getting them to put the detritus of their meal in the bin themselves, or better still have a drive-in where people take it all away.
Source:
![[ george ritzer ]](http://retrieverimages.lycos.com/images/g/e/o/george-ritzer/i/003.jpg)
George Ritzer is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, where he has been named Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. His other publications include Frontiers of Social-Theory (Colombia University Press) and Sociology: Experiencing Changing Societies (5th edition) with Kenneth Kammeyer and Norman Yetman.
Source:
George Ritzer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, where he has been named Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He has served as Chair of the American Sociological Association's Sections on Theoretical Sociology and Organizations and Occupations. His major areas of interest are sociological theory and the sociology of work.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
George Ritzer