Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption: Fast Food, Credit Cards and Casinos / Edition 1

by George Ritzer

Overview

In this book, one of the leading social theorists and cultural commentators of modern times, turns his gaze on consumption. George Ritzer, author of the famous Mc Donaldization Thesis, demonstrates the irrational consequences of the rational desire to consume and commodify. He examines how Mc Donaldization might be resisted, and situates the reader in the new cultural spaces that are emerging in society: shopping malls, casino hotels, Disneyfied theme parks and Las Vegas — the new ‘cathedrals of consumption' as he calls them. The book shows how new processes of consumption relate to globalization theory. In illuminating discussions of the work of Thorstein Veblen and the French situationists, Ritzer unearths the roots of problems of consumption in older sociological traditions. He indicates how transgression is bound up with consumption, through an investigation of the obscene in popular and postmodern culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761971207
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	06/04/2001
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.57(d)

About the Author

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 La Trobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The Mc Donaldization 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 Mc Donaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the Mc Donaldization 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.

Table of Contents

Writing to Be Read
The Irrationality of Rationality
Some Thoughts on the Future of Mc Donaldization
The Process of Mc Donaldization Is Not Uniform
Nor Are Its Settings, Consumers or the Consumption of Its Goods and Services
Expressing America
A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society
Enchanting a Disenchanted World
Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption
Ensnared in the E-Net
The Future Belongs to the Immaterial Means of Consumption
The New Means of Consumption and the Situationist Perspective
Thorstein Veblen in the Age of Hyperconsumerism
Obscene from Any Angle
Fast Food, Credit Cards, Casinos and Consumers

Editorial Reviews

‘With this new collection, George Ritzer further cements his reputation as a leading commentator on consumption. In so doing, he delves deeper into a variety of new territories, such as the significance of casinos, than in his previous works. The salience of the developments he so rigorously outlines for wider trends in globalization is accessibly explained. Researchers into consumption and globalization will definitely want this book on their shelves' - Alan Bryman, University of Loughborough

From the Publisher