The Globalization of Nothing 2

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 LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization 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 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, 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.

• About the AuthorPreface1. Globalization: A New ConceptualizationKey Topics in the Study of GlobalizationGlobalization TheoriesGlocalization and GrobalizationGrobalization: The Major ProcessesGlocal, Grobal, and Local2. Nothing (and Something): Another New ConceptualizationDefining NothingDefining SomethingThe Something-Nothing ContinuumGlobalization and the Dimensions of Nothing3. Meet the Nullities: Nonplaces, Nonthings, Nonpeople, and NonservicesNonplaces (and Places)Nonthings (and Things)Nonpeople (and People)Nonservice (and Service)Relationships Among the NullitiesAn Illustrative Excursion to the Movies4. Nothing: Caveats and ClarificationsConceptual Aids to Understanding NothingSome ParadoxesThe Social Construction of NothingThe Economics of Nothing (and Something)In Defense of Nothing5. The Globalization of NothingElective AffinitiesGrobalization: Loose Cultural and Tight Structural FormsThe Grobalization of Nothing: Enabling Factors6. Theorizing Glocalization and GrobalizationTheorizing the Globalization of CultureAnalyzing Sport: Use and Abuse of the Concept of GlocalizationAnalyzing McDonaldization Anthropologically: More Use and Abuse of GlocalizationThinking About the Fate of the LocalContributions to Cultural Theories of Globalization7. The Globalization of Consumer Culture---and Global Opposition to ItElements of Consumer CultureDriving Forces Behind the Globalization of Consumer CultureThe Role of BrandingBeyond the Usual "Consumer" SuspectsGlobal Attacks on the Symbols of American Consumer CultureThe Globalization of Nothing and September 11, 20018. Loss Amidst Monumental Abundance---and Global Strategies for Coping With ItTheory and the Paradoxes of Consumer CultureLoss Amidst Monumental AbundanceStrategies for Overcoming the Sense of LossNotesIndex

"This edition is a shorter, tighter, and more focused book that deals focally and directly with globalization, at least as it relates to nothing and something. Readers will come away from this revision with not only a new way of looking at globalization but also a sense of the problems posed by the globalization of nothing and the need to find ways to deal with its pernicious aspects."