This companion features original essays on the complexity of globalization and its diverse and sometimes conflicting effects. Written by top scholars in the field, it offers a nuanced and detailed examination of globalization that includes both positive and critical evaluations.

• Introduces the major players, theories, and methodologies
• Explores the major areas of impact, including the environment, cities, outsourcing, consumerism, global media, politics, religion, and public health
• Addresses the foremost concerns of global inequality, corruption, international terrorism, war, and the future of globalization
• Wide-ranging and comprehensive, an excellent text for undergraduate and graduate students in a range of disciplines

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. He was awarded the 2000 Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association and he has authored more than 25 books including several student textbooks. He has been a major contributor to the literature on globalization, especially in The McDonaldization of Society (4 editions, last in 2004), Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society (1995) and most recently (2004), The Globalization of Nothing (2nd edition to be published in 2007 as The Globalization of Nothing 2). He is editor of The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007).