This concise encyclopedia is the most complete international survey of sociology ever created in one volume.Contains over 800 entries from the whole breadth of the disciplineDistilled from the highly regarded Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, with entries completely revised and updated to provide succinct and up-to-date coverage of the fundamental topicsGlobal in scope, both in terms of topics and contributorsEach entry includes references and suggestions for further readingCross-referencing allows easy movement around the volume

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, with awards that include the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Award. He is the author of numerous books includingThe McDonaldization of Society (1993; 2008),The Globalization of Nothing (2003; 2007)Globalization: A Basic Text (2010) and the editor ofThe Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2005),The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007),The Blackwell Companion to Globalization (2007) and the forthcomingThe Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization. His work has been translated into over twenty languages.

J. Michael Ryan is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park. He was senior managing editor ofThe Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007) and is managing editor of the online edition of that project as well as for several other forthcoming encyclopedias from Blackwell. Mike also served as managing editor of theJournal of Consumer Culture for four years. He has published more than a dozen articles and book chapters on consumption, sexuality, globalization, and social theory and has been the recipient of numerous awards for his commitment to teaching, LGBT rights, and social change.

Contributors.

Introduction.

Acknowledgments.

Timeline.

Lexicon.

Sociology AZ.

Index.