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The McDonaldization of Society

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So often we hear those words, "I wish there were more time." More time for minding the kids, more time for doing our work with the quality that we somehow know can be attained, more time for creative pursuits. Why this pervasive "time deficit" malaise? Sociologist George Ritzer has some answers, and they are unsettling.

In "The McDonaldization of Society," Ritzer takes the fast-food industry and its principles of business as an organizational template for emerging postmodern society. He points out that the book in not a criticism of McDonald's, nor even the fast-food business, but an analysis of how fast-food organizational practices have permeated into myriad aspects of our social lives. His marshalling of evidience for this trend is compelling. Using many examples from such disparate social institutions as family life, higher education, the funeral business, health care, and entertainment, Ritzer illuminates the broader trends within the "taken for granted" daily routines of life. He does so with a keen sociological eye, but also with a very wry sense of irreverence that adds a sardonic touch of humor to the expose.

The fast-food model, according to Ritzer, has a manner of pushing us towards ever greater reliance on the fostering of quantity over quality, attainment of efficiency, creation of predictability, and reducing much of our life experience to a coldly calculated "value." As one reads further and takes in the diverse landscape of specific illustrations for these trends, one begins to see the "McDonalized" influence everywhere. Then too, one will also grasp why so many of us are bemoaning the demise of free time in our lives, and how we have become unwitting captives of the mindless inertia of "I want it fast, I want it now, I want what's next" mentalities.

Fortunately, Ritzer includes a chapter on what to do about living in a "McDonalized" world. He points out that we do have choices, and responsibilities, shoud we choose to accept them. One can learn to march to a less frantic pace of social organization, and recognize that many of the promised "rewards" of such an accelerated lifestyle are simply false and hollow.

After reading a book like this, one feels compelled to begin thinking through the relationship between personal life and institutional pressures for faster living. That alone is a solid reason to have a copy of this book. It will uncover some unpleasant realities, but at the same time challenge one to get beyond the defeatist attitude of "well, what you gonna' do?"

"McDonaldization of Society" is indeed a wake-up call, but also a consciousness altering work that underscores the important truth: just because the rest of society seems to be running faster and without real purpose, it doesn't mean that one must fall in line. My advice: Purchase this insightful book, take time to read and think about it... read it, in fact, at a favorite "Ma and Pa" type diner, where they won't encourage you to rush out the door and will ask you to wait awhile while the cook fusses over that blue-plate special. A choice, you see.

In his book, "The McDonaldization of Society", George Ritzer writes of McDonald's as a catalyst that provoked rapid and significant changes throughout the fast-food industry and in multinational businesses, changes that directly and circuitously affected people and society in positive and negative ways. However, Ritzer contends that McDonaldization has contributed more negatively to society than positively. It is rare that such an erudite study can also be so readable by the public.

Many people can easily recall the long lasting societal effects of such creations as the fax, the World Wide Web and email, the effects of global warming, the passing of NAFTA and so on, but few have considered the influence of a fast-food franchise such as McDonald's. When people think of McDonald's, they envision the fast-food giant of the industry - serving up their famous "Big Mac", fries, and milkshake. Few people can imagine of the impact of McDonald's upon society, but in "The McDonaldization of Society", George Ritzer illustrates these changes in a clear concise examination of this phenomenon.

Ritzer writes of the many industries that have strived to emulate McDonald's success by utilizing their system of operation, companies like Pizza Hut, Dominos, Wendy's, Toys R Us, Eye Masters, USA Today and other newspapers (McPapers) and so on. There are a host of other industries that have fashioned themselves after the McDonald's mold, like McDoctors, Books-on-Tapes, McBanks, ATMs, and so forth. These and many other industries are viewed as direct by-products of McDonaldization. However, Ritzer makes it clear that Ray Kroc (McDonald's CEO) neither created the "McDonald's principles nor the idea of a franchise. Ray Kroc's genius was in the way he combined many of the ideas of bureaucracy, the McDonald brothers, and other franchises into the McDonald's franchise of today.

The central theme in Ritzer's book is the "enabling" and "constraining" affects of McDonaldization and how this phenomenon has changed parts of society both in the United States and abroad - from private and public industries to its citizenry. Ritzer contends that McDonald's success is a direct outcome of their implementation of a kind of bureaucratic system that involves the concepts of "efficiency, quantification, predictability, and control" (rules and regulations). This system, according to Ritzer, results in striking changes throughout society, dehumanization of employees and to a great extent even control over consumers. Ritzer considers these four components to be at the heart of McDonaldization and therefore covers the concepts in separate detailed chapters.

Ritzer views McDonald's as a metaphor for bureaucracy with all the benefits and drawbacks of bureaucracies. Bureaucracies function under the same principles of efficiency, quantification, predictability, and control and in Ritzer's view "[w]e must therefore look at McDonaldization as both "enabling" and "constraining." McDonaldized systems enable people to do things they were unable to do in the past (work faster, efficiently, have more free time, etc.). However, these same systems also keep individuals from doing things that they would otherwise do (be creative, have quality time....). George Ritzer writes that "[t]he success of the McDonald's model suggests that many people have come to prefer a world in which there are few surprises". McDonaldization is a "double-edged" sword working for and against people.

Ritzer is more concerned with the social impact of McDonaldization than he is in documenting the history of McDonald's as the goliath of the fast-food industry. Nevertheless, in presenting his case, against McDonaldization, Ritzer succeeds in debunking many of the misconceptions concerning Ray Kroc and McDonald's. He reminds his reader that Mac and Dick McDonald were the originators of McDonald's. It was the McDonald's brothers - not Ray Kroc ? that created the concept of assembly line procedures, cheap prices, short menus, and the idea of fast food.

The reader will learn that bureaucracies function under the concept of "rationality" and how this concept can be found in virtually all forms of bureaucracies. Ritzer also posits that systems based on rationality invariably result in irrationality (all bureaucracies suffer from the "irrationality of rationality") and he links this concept to McDonaldization. Ritzer conveys his concerns with the role played by bureaucratic systems that affect and/or limit interaction among, individual, how they create a robotic state in workers, how bureaucracies stump creativity, freedom of choice and expression and so on.

As support for his contentions on bureaucracies, Ritzer discusses Max Weber's writings on bureaucracies. McDonald's is amplification and an extension of Max Weber's theory of rationalization. Ritzer makes the connection between efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control to Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy in which bureaucracies function by Weber's concept of formal rationality. According to George Ritzer and Max Weber, economics may be at the forefront of all bureaucracies (rational systems) in one form or another; this is Ritzer's opinion concerning McDonaldization.

"The McDonaldization of Society" envelopes concepts in sociology, psychology, politics, and economics, such as, role playing, rituals, behavior modification, reward and punishment, dehumanization, hierarchies, deviancy, rational irrational systems, formal structures, cost v. profits, quantity v. quality and so forth. At the end of the book, George Ritzer outlines some strategies that people can use to fight, resists and/or limit McDonaldization in their lives ? some ideas are logical and others radical. Ritzer's writing on McDonaldization, its concepts and affects on society makes for surprising and enlightening reading.

McDonalds's is G. Ritzer's perfect paradigm for explaining the actual structure of our planet. He has built his portrait on Max Weber's rationalization concept. This concept expresses man's search for the optimum means to a given end by rules, regulations and larger social structures. Its driving force is economics (capitalism).

This concept affects virtually all aspects of our society all over the world: work, education, health care, leisure, transport, sports, politics, justice, religion and the family. It shows a planet centered on rational consumerism.

The ingredients of the system are efficiency, calculability, predictability and nonhuman technologies for controlling people. It was greatly helped by technological breakthroughs like automobiles, TV, the computer, internet and lasers (DVD) and by fundamental changes in Western societies (single parent families, working women, higher mobility, increasing disposable income, time savings, mediatization and advertising).

But Max Weber foresaw also the lurking irrationalities, the dehumanization and homogenization, which expressed themselves in environmental and health problems (air pollution), McJobs (disenchantment, false friendliness), traffic jams, bureaucratization.

McDonaldization produces the perfect way of life for people who, as Nietzsche said, use the wrong conjugation: they don't live, they are lived.

For G. Ritzer, McDonaldization is the `grobalization of nothing': a world dominated by the imperialistic ambitions of nations, corporations and organizations, whose main intent is growth of their power, influence and profits. `Nothing' is a social form that is generally centrally conceived, controlled and comparatively devoid of distinctive substantive content.'

The author would like to see a more deMcDonaldizated world (see the many recommendations at the end of the book), but McDonaldization is still on the march, certainly in developing countries.

This book is a crucial, superbly documented, text for all those who want to understand the world we live in.

A must read.

It's nice to see that the book has been updated for the "new century," clearly it is a seminal work that gets at the root of the direction that our society is taking. For those readers who are troubled by mega-mergers and large corporations dumping toxins into lakes: this book provides the needed background information on how these globalizing systems develop and why.

My only caveat is that now the term "Wal-Mart-ization, is probably more apropos given the rapid expanse of this enterprise. Two reasons why Wal-Mart is more appropriate. First, McDonalds is merely one small department within a Wal-Mart. And secondly, Wal-Marts have a detrimental effect (debate this on your own if you like) on the local economy. McDonalds, rarely had the kind of economic impact on their environs as Wal-marts do. I understand that McDonalds came first, though - so okay.

There are other aspects that I'd like to see discussed in the book: 1. The factoid I've heard that countries with McDonalds don't go to war with each other; and 2. Is the deteriorating level of service at places like McDonalds indicative of a decline with something else in our society? I don't know what neighborhood Ritzer is from, but I wouldn't go in to the McDonalds near my college campus if you paid me. It also seems to be the place where the panhandlers are most prevalent. These would make for a nice epilogue to any new editions; I read the first.

The McDonaldization of Society is an interesting and seemingly picture of how many sectors of society are using the rational methods championed by "Mickey Dees" that are supposedly efficient. This book is about the negative side effects of such processes. These methods basically are more efficient for the companies employing them, but inefficient for the customer. They put a premium on profits over quality, alienate workers, and are damaging towards the environment. This book will uncover the McDonaldized reasons behind many of our common routines. The main reason why these McDonaldized ways flourish is because the majority of the people believe in them and confirm to them which to me is a form of false class consciousness. Most of such people have been conditioned to such McDonaldized ways so are therefore unable to question these methods. More than ever the Socratic mandate, "The unexamined life is not worth living," becomes more important for us to follow.

George Ritzer in this book gives us a quick survey of the history of McDonald's restaurants. Then he analyzes in depth the four parameters of this phenomenon : efficiency, calculability, predictability, control, and then moves to his criticism of this rationality, what he calls the irrationality of rationality. The book is absolutely biased because it does not take into account the tremendous improvements such a phenomenon brought to society : a certain liberation of women from housework with take-away restaurants, the possibility to work shorter hours by reducing the lunch-break to a very short period of time, hence enabling people to go home earlier and to have more free time thanks to less wasted time, the possibility for many millions of people to go to a restaurant, without spending there a tremendous amount of time, and some of those millions might never have had this opportunity in the old times. What's more Ritzer forgets that it has always been a fundamental objective of humanity to reduce wasted time, to reduce heavy, difficult and long tasks to mechanized lighter, faster and easier tasks. We can discuss the percentage of fat in McDonald's burgers, but we cannot say this type of rationalization goes against humanity : it is in perfect continuity with what humanity has always tried to do. When the printing press was invented it rationalised the production of books and made old « books » obsolete (what a loss when we know the beauty of such old middle-ages books), but it also enabled the multiplication of such books and the lowering of their cost, so that a whole revolution came out of it : the spreading of the printed Bible transformed the Christian world with no chance to go back to the limitation of the knowledge of and access to the Book to only a minority that could do and say what they wanted. This book is essential to understand our modern world, but it is dictating a model that has become in many ways obsolete. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

George Ritzer's well known book, "The McDonaldization of Society," refers to society's increasingly hurried pace towards more and more rationalization. Rationalization is the means by which managers find more and more effecient methods of accomplishing corporate tasks. Such tasks do not require that employees be smart or skillful. Over time this process begins to take over the entire society, with the result that we have tract homes in dull, uninteresting suburban areas (read: Irvine, California), and uninteresting, large, stores, such as Super Kmart, Wal-Mart, etcetera. Ritzer is not an anticapitalist, and I praise him for not soliciting legislative solutions. If one seeks more individualized stores in one's neighbhorhoods and cities, one should shop at such stores. This is a highly influential book and I'd highly recommend it.

Ritzer does say that this process will be hard to stop, and that it is likely to continue. He does offer a few solutions, but most of them were simply jokes. I would say that the biggest problem with this book is the prose. It's awful. Yes, many highly educated Ph.d's don't know how to write well. It's unfortunate, but it's a product of the graduate program that many of them entered into. There is a lot of fluff--useless sentences aimed at making the book longer. The book could have been edited a lot.

Michael

I though that this book would be more focused on McDonalds but as it turns out it is more about the trends that are so well encapsulated in the business that most people will be familiar with, McDonalds.

In many ways the book focuses on the more negative impacts of the modern culture of 'fast food'. This is not to say that the issues are not relevant or valid, however the growth of such modern businesses doesn't happen without their ability to successfully satisfy a need.

In many ways the book portrays this commercialism as the culprit yet is this simply happening because that is what modern society is demanding? Cheaper costs and faster service? It is a bit of the chicken and egg syndrome.

All in all the book is a worthwhile read as it demonstrates how far the 'scientific methods' that have been successfully applied and adopted in McDonalds are now common place. It really makes you wonder where it will all end and whether it is really providing benefit. Even if it isn't, as long as there is demand it will remain an applicable business strategy.

I was suprised that George Ritzer's "McDonalization of Society" is actually on here! I thought it was just considered a text book because it has been used in colleges throughout the country, including mine. I had to read it for my Sociology class and it kind of sounded boring at first. Later however I began to enjoy it. I wrote an evaluation of the book for the class and it's too bad that it's too long put on here...'cause this really is a great book. "McDonalization.." is not really about McDonald's company itself, but how other companies have been influenced by McDonald's and have a similar system of running their business. Examples they include range from Starbucks to Wall-Mart. If you're one of those people who get annoyed sometimes as the coorporation monopoly's on society then this book is for you. I really reccomend this book to anyone even if you're not a college Sociology student.

This book was required reading for an undergraduate sociology course for Human Relations majors (sociology course for sociology/education/psychology). It was an eye opening experience because the readers/continuous learner is encouraged to step inside the corporate framework that directly affects our ideas and acceptance of an ideology of busines, etc based on the McDonald's corporate culture.

Our class found it powerful reading and most were challenged to think about and ask, "what are we really doing to improve our lives, culture and global community?"