George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at theUniversity of Maryland, with awards that include the AmericanSociological Association's Distinguished Contribution to TeachingAward. He is the author of numerous books including
TheMcDonaldization of Society (1993; 2008),
The Globalizationof Nothing (2003; 2007)
Globalization: A Basic Text(2010) and the editor of
The Encyclopedia of Social Theory(2005),
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007),
The Blackwell Companion to Globalization (2007) and theforthcoming
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization. Hiswork has been translated into over twenty languages.
J. Michael Ryan is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at theUniversity of Maryland at College Park. He was senior managingeditor of The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007) andis managing editor of the online edition of that project as well asfor several other forthcoming encyclopedias from Blackwell. Mikealso served as managing editor of the Journal of ConsumerCulture for four years. He has published more than a dozenarticles and book chapters on consumption, sexuality,globalization, and social theory and has been the recipient ofnumerous awards for his commitment to teaching, LGBT rights, andsocial change.
