TORONTO, March 26, 2001 -- Sociologist and author of The McDonaldization of Society George Ritzer says the world’s consumption patterns are quickly moving on from the ‘depersonalized’ superstore to ‘dematerialized’ electronic networks, ensnaring us in invisible nets of hyperconsumption that are difficult to escape.

Ritzer will speak on the subject of Globalization Theory and the New Means of Consumption, on Wednesday, March 28 at noon, the second in a series of public lectures he will deliver as Fulbright Visiting Chair at York University. The lectures are based on two volumes of his collected works soon to be released by Sage Publications.

In his volume Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption, Ritzer says many of us are destined to be far more ensnared in ‘e-nets’ than we were imprisoned in the ‘iron cages’ of the material means of consumption such as the mall and the casino because "the cybermalls and cybercasinos are in our homes, our offices and on vacation with us."

In The McDonaldization of Society, Ritzer described how the principles of rationalization and bureaucracy adopted by fast-food restaurants and retail chains were dominating American and global society with a dehumanizing process of central control on human creativity. In Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption he notes that the corporation rather than the state has become the most important actor on the world stage and the gap between these two entities is likely to grow.

Ritzer says globalization theory has emerged as one of the most widely discussed and hotly debated subjects in contemporary social theory as it has sought to address the realities of increased political and civic interest in the phenomenon. This interest is visible in the mass protests that began in Seattle at the World Trade Organization meeting in1999 and are expected to continue in Quebec City in April at the Summit of the Americas.

"While McDonaldization and the exportation of the new means of consumption are global in reach, they generate opposition movements that are similarly global," writes Ritzer. "It is unlikely that these opposition movements will defeat the American-based forces they oppose, but they are likely to force them to ameliorate their worst excesses."

Ritzer is a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, USA. He will speak from noon to 2 p.m. in the Sociology Common Room, 2101 Vari Hall, York University, Keele Campus, 4700 Keele St.

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For more information, please contact:

Prof. Fuyuki Kurasawa
Dept. of Sociology
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 77984
kurasawa@yorku.ca

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
sbigelow@yorku.ca
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