SOCI 2070

McWorld

Today’s Class

1. Defining McDonaldization2. Origins of McDonaldization 3. Principles of McDonaldization4. McDonaldization Beyond McDonald’s5. The Irrationality of Rationality?

Today’s Readings

Required1. George Ritzer, “An Introduction to McDonaldization”, The

McDonaldization of Society. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2008, 1-21.

2. Deborah Barndt, “Arch Deluxe with a Smile”, Tangled Routes: Women, Work and Globalization on the Tomato Trail. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, 94-128.

Supplementary Reading: 1. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Collins,

2001, 225-252. 2. George Ritzer ‘Dealing with McDonaldization: A Practical

Guide’. The McDonaldization of Society Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2008, 187-210.  

Defining McDonaldization

“McDonald’s is the basis of one of the most influential developments in contemporary society. Its reverberations extend far beyond its point of origin in the United States and in the fast-food business. It has influenced a wide range of undertakings, indeed a way of life, of a significant portion of the world. And that impact is likely to expand at an accelerating rate.”

McDonaldization: “the process by which

the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world.”

Ritzer

Not Just Fast Food

Casual diningRetail businessesEducation Health careTravel and leisure Emulated on a global scale

Origins of McDonaldization

Linked to earlier social processes and social theories

Bureaucratization (Weber)Scientific Management (Taylor) Assembly Line (Ford)

Max Weber: Bureaucracy

Institutions based on rational-legal authority

1. A fixed division of labour 2. A hierarchy of offices 3. General rules that are recorded in permanent

files4. Separation of personal from official property5. Selection of personnel on the basis of technical

qualifications6. Employment considered a full-time career

Bureaucracies

Expert, technical knowledge Technical superiority StabilityPredictability

Bureaucracies

concentrate power at the toperode the capacity for spontaneous

actiondehumanize imprison humanity in an ‘iron cage’

F. W.Taylor: One Best Way

Scientific Management: Find the most efficient way of doing a job Train workers to execute the job efficiently Design the job so it can be done without

thinking (deskilling) Closely monitor and control the workers’

performance Place all decision-making responsibility in

hands of management

Henry Ford: Assembly Line

All movements are simplified Unnecessary steps or movements are

eliminated Parts are received efficiently (travel

the least possible distance) Mechanical (not human) means used

to transport car and parts

Ford and Taylor in the 1920s

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PvbG9Sjp97o http://youtube.com/watch?v=kFsBC0_Uglg

&feature=related

McDonaldization

Efficiency the optimum

method for getting from one point to another

Calculability an emphasis on the

quantitative aspects of products sold

Predictability the assurance that

products and services will be the same over time and in other locations

Control through nonhuman technology

McDonaldization

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fdy1AgO6Fp4

Beyond McD’s & Beyond AmericaMcDonald’s as a Global Icon

McD’s in Moscow; McD’s in Beijing

McDonaldized transnationals Body Shop, IKEA

McDonaldization as Governance

Working at McDonalds http://youtube.com/watch?v=gZjdouRo_qA

McDonaldization as governance

The Customer is McDonalidized

Performs tasks formerly performed by workers Bag your own groceries

Supervises workers The ‘goldfish bowl’

Do we get what we want…

AdvantagesWide range of goods and services Not tied to time and placeGet what you want when you want itIncreased uniformityStability, familiarity, and comfortRapid diffusion of innovation

Irrationality of Rationality

1. Efficiency Environmental

problems Factory farming

2. Calculability Health problems Supersize me

3. Predictability Limits creativity No choices, no

thinking

4. Control Dehumanizes

Irrationality of Rationality

”Unfettered by the constraints of McDonaldized systems, but using the technological advances made possible by them, people would have the potential to be far more thoughtful, skillful, creative, and well-rounded than they are now. In short, if they world were less McDonaldized, people would be better able to live up to their human potential.”

Ritzer