George Ritzer

George Ritzer (born October 14, 1940) is an American sociologist, professor, and author who has mainly studied globalization, metatheory, patterns of consumption, and modern/postmodern social theory. His concept of McDonaldization draws upon Max Weber's idea of rationalization through the lens of the fast food industry. He coined the term in a 1983 article for The Journal of American Culture, developing the concept in The McDonaldization of Society (1993), which is among the best selling monographs in the history of American sociology. Ritzer has written many general sociology books, including Introduction to Sociology (2012) and Essentials to Sociology (2014), and modern/postmodern social theory textbooks. Many of his works have been translated into over 20 languages, with over a dozen translations of The McDonaldization of Society alone. In the Spring of 1989, Ritzer was a Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden. Ritzer is currently a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park. In December 2025, the journal Thesis Eleven published a special issue dedicated to celebrating Ritzer’s intellectual trajectory and highlighting his influence on contemporary social theory. The volume was edited by sociologist J. Michael Ryan, a frequent collaborator and co-author of several works with Ritzer.