Sociological Theory

George Ritzer is the former Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. 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, 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, 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. His two introductory texts (Introduction to Sociology and Essentials of Sociology) are also published by SAGE.

Jeff Stepnisky is an Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He completed his Ph. D. at the University of Maryland, where he studied with George Ritzer and served as Managing editor for the Encyclopedia of Social Theory and the Journal of Consumer Culture. He is also Ritzer's co-editor on the Wiley-BlackwellCompanion to Major Social Theorists, and co-author on Contemporary Theory and its Classical Roots (4th ed.) and Sociological Theory(9th ed.), both published by McGraw-Hill. His research interests lie at the intersections of sociology and psychology--the idea that selfhood is not an individual possession, but a socially and culturally mediated phenomenon. At McEwan, he teach courses in Introductory Sociology, Sociological Theory, Social Psychology and the Sociology of Mental Illness.