Customer Reviews

McDonaldization: The Reader

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Ritzer offers the loaded term McDonaldization as anything that takes after McDonald's Corporation. Four precepts are given - efficiency, calculability, predictability and automatic control. This book searches human society for examples that satisfy these precepts. A strange lens with which to view, perhaps. The fear, and that is basically the right word, is that those examples can or will inevitably lead to a homogenisation and standardisation of experiences. A shallow oneness for all.

One very interesting example from the book is the claim that the Internet is one of these examples. There has certainly been a commonality of experiences. Now, many people use browsers, with the differences between browsers being trivial. And the browser metaphor has proved axiomatic; a key factor in the Web's success. But the ability for anyone for make content for the Internet is a trend against a homogeneous experience. So that many diverse interests can be accessed and enjoyed.

I needed this for a Sociology Class I was taking. I got the book in time for class and it was in great condition.