His name is perhaps best known for the concept of McDonaldization , a term he coined in 1983 to describe the process by which the principles of the fast-food industry—efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control—have come to dominate more and more sectors of society worldwide. Drawing on Max Weber's idea of rationalization, The McDonaldization of Society has become one of the best-selling monographs in the history of American sociology, translated into over a dozen languages.

: Analyzing postmodernism, globalization, and consumer culture. Core Theoretical Frameworks Covered

Sociology has historically swung between macro-level determinism (where society dictates individual behavior) and micro-level reductionism (where society is viewed merely as the sum of individual choices). Ritzer emphasizes theories that successfully integrate both levels, demonstrating how small-scale interactions build large-scale institutions, which then reactively shape human agency. Agency vs. Structure