Explorations in Social Theory

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association, an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed.), has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages. Ritzer is also the editor of McDonaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, as well as a series best-selling social theory textbooks and Globalization: A Basic Text. He is the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2 vols.), the Encyclopedia of Sociology (11 vols.; 2nd edition forthcoming), the Encyclopedia of Globalization (5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. In 2016 he will publish the second edition of Essentials of Sociology with SAGE.

′This book is a book that all sociologists should read. It brings together in one volume many of the ideas that have made Ritzer one of the leading sociologist in the world. It should be a book on everyone′s bookshelf′ - Jonathan H Turner

• PART ONE: METATHEORIZINGMetatheorizing in SociologyThe Delineation of an Underlying ArchitectonicSociologyA Multiple Paradigm ScienceToward an Integrated Sociological ParadigmImage of the Subject MatterPotential Examplars for an Integrated Sociological ParadigmMethodological RelationismLessons for and from Social PsychologyFrom Exclusion to Inclusion to Chaos (?) In Sociological TheoryThe Implications of Postmodern Social Theory for Metatheorizing in SociologyPART TWO: RATIONALIZATION THEORYRationalization and Deprofessionalization of PhysiciansThe McDonaldization of SocietyHyperrationalityAn Extension of Weberian and Neo-Weberian TheoryMannheim′s Theory of RationalizationAn Alternative Resource for the McDonaldization Thesis?The McDonaldization of American SociologyA Metasociological Analysis