George Ritzer has heralded many of the most field-defining works in the discipline of sociology today. I have known, and worked with, George for nearly all of my adult life. During that time, he has been my professor, my advisor, my co-author, and my friend. Throughout all of my work, and teaching, and personal life, George has always been present. This essay will attempt to honor George Ritzer, both as a global scholar and as a personal mentor, through the lens of some of the fields—metatheory, McDonaldization, globalization, consumption, prosumption—where he has made some of his own most influential contributions.
RitzerG (2015) Prosumer capitalism. The Sociological Quarterly56: 413–445.
13.
RitzerG (2021) McDonaldization in the age of COVID-19. In: RyanJM (eds) COVID-19: Global Pandemic, Societal Responses, Ideological Solutions. London: Routledge, 23–28.
RitzerGLiskaA (1997) Mcdisneyization and post-tourism: Complementary perspectives on contemporary tourism. In: RojekCUrryJ (eds) Touring Cultures: Transformations in Travel and Theory. London: Routledge, 96–109.
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RitzerGRyanJM (2007) Postmodern social theory and sociology: On symbolic exchange with a “dead” theory. In: PowellJOwenT (eds) Reconstructing Postmodernism: Critical Debates. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 41–57.
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RitzerGRyanJM (2024) Introduction to Sociology, 6th edThousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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RitzerGRyanJM (2026) The McDonaldization of Society, 11th edThousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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RitzerGRyanM (2003a) Toward a richer understanding of global commodification: Glocalization and grobalization. The Hedgehog Review5(2): 66–76.
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RitzerGRyanM (2003b) The globalization of nothing. Social Thought & Research25: 51–81.
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RitzerGSmartB, eds. (2003) Handbook of Social Theory. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
RitzerGStepniskyJN (2022) Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics, 6th edThousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
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RitzerGRojekCRyanJM, eds (2025) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd edLondon: Wiley.
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RitzerGRyanJMStepniskyJ (2005) Transformations in consumer settings: Landscapes and beyond. In: RatneshwarRMickD (eds) Inside Consumption. New York: Routledge, 292–308.
28.
RitzerGRyanJMHayesS, et al. (2024) McDonaldization and artificial intelligence. Postdigital Science and Education.
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RyanJM (2005) Easton: A 21st Century (R)evolution in Consumption, Community, Urbanism, and Space. University of Maryland.
30.
TimimiS (2010) The McDonaldization of childhood: Children’s mental health in neo-liberal market cultures. Transcultural Psychiatry47(5): 686–706.
31.
TorrèsO (2006) Introduction: The McDonaldization of wine. In: The Wine Wars: The Mondavi Affair, Globalisation and ‘Terroir’. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1–12.
