This book brings together some of Meyer's widely-scattered work, reviewing four decades of scholarship, and adding several original pieces from his current work. It gathers substantive commentary on social processes, from stratification to globalization to socialization, and on key social institutions, from science to religion to law to education.

Key works from a leading intellectual figure in Organization Studies and Sociology Meyer contributes several new pieces, including a retrospective of his last four decades of influential scholarship Ranges from social processes, such as stratification, globalization, and socialization, to social institutions, such as science, religion, law, and education Includes editorial commentary, a bibliography of all Meyer's published work

Georg Krücken (Ph.D., Sociology Bielefeld University, 1996) is professor for Science Organization, Higher Education and Science Management at the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer. He taught as a guest professor at the Institute for Science Studies, University of Vienna, and at the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations, Sciences Po, Paris. He also worked as an associate professor in Bielefeld University until 2006 and was a visiting scholar at the Department of Sociology at Stanford University between 1999 and 2001. His research interests include neo-institutional theory, science studies, organizational studies, and the management of higher education. Recent books include Neo-Institutionalismus. 2nd., revised and extended edition with a preface by John Meyer (Bielefeld 2005, co-authored with Raimund Hasse), Towards a Multiversity? Universities between Global Trends and National Traditions (Bielefeld 2007, co-edited with Anna Kosmützky and Mark Torka). Gili S. Drori (Ph.D., Sociology Stanford University 1997) is a lecturer in Stanford University's International Relations Program and the Director of the International Relations Honors Program. Her research interests include the comparative study of science, social progress and rationalization, globalization, and governance. She also wrote on world culture, global health, technology entrepreneurship, and higher education. These interests inform her recent books: Science in the Modern World Polity: Institutionalization and Globalization (Stanford, 2003 co-authored with John W. Meyer, Francisco O. Ramirez and Evan Schofer), Global E-litism: Digital Technology, Social Inequality, and Transnationality (Worth, 2005), and Globalization and Organization: World Society and the Expansion of Formal Organization (OUP, 2006 co-edited with John W. Meyer and Hokyu Hwang). She earned her B.A. and M.A., in sociology and anthropology and in political science, from Tel Aviv University.

Key works from a leading intellectual figure in Organization Studies and Sociology Meyer contributes several new pieces, including a retrospective of his last four decades of influential scholarship Ranges from social processes, such as stratification, globalization, and socialization, to social institutions, such as science, religion, law, and education Includes editorial commentary, a bibliography of all Meyer's published work