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SOCI 2070 McWorld

SOCI 2070 McWorld. Today’s Class. Defining McDonaldization Origins of McDonaldization Principles of McDonaldization McDonaldization Beyond McDonald’s The Irrationality of Rationality?. Today’s Readings. Required

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SOCI 2070 McWorld

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  1. SOCI 2070McWorld

  2. Today’s Class • Defining McDonaldization • Origins of McDonaldization • Principles of McDonaldization • McDonaldization Beyond McDonald’s • The Irrationality of Rationality?

  3. Today’s Readings Required • George Ritzer, “An Introduction to McDonaldization”, The McDonaldization of Society. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2008, 1-21. • 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: • Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Collins, 2001, 225-252. • George Ritzer ‘Dealing with McDonaldization: A Practical Guide’. The McDonaldization of Society Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2008, 187-210.

  4. “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 Defining McDonaldization

  5. Not Just Fast Food • Casual dining • Retail businesses • Education • Health care • Travel and leisure • Emulated on a global scale

  6. Origins of McDonaldization • Linked to earlier social processes and social theories • Bureaucratization (Weber) • Scientific Management (Taylor) • Assembly Line (Ford)

  7. Max Weber: Bureaucracy • Institutions based on rational-legal authority • A fixed division of labour • A hierarchy of offices • General rules that are recorded in permanent files • Separation of personal from official property • Selection of personnel on the basis of technical qualifications • Employment considered a full-time career

  8. Bureaucracies • Expert, technical knowledge • Technical superiority • Stability • Predictability

  9. Bureaucracies • concentrate power at the top • erode the capacity for spontaneous action • dehumanize • imprison humanity in an ‘iron cage’

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. Ford and Taylor in the 1920s • http://youtube.com/watch?v=PvbG9Sjp97o • http://youtube.com/watch?v=kFsBC0_Uglg&feature=related

  13. 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

  14. McDonaldization • http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fdy1AgO6Fp4

  15. Beyond McD’s & Beyond America • McDonald’s as a Global Icon • McD’s in Moscow; McD’s in Beijing • McDonaldized transnationals • Body Shop, IKEA

  16. McDonaldization as Governance Working at McDonalds http://youtube.com/watch?v=gZjdouRo_qA

  17. McDonaldization as governance • The Customer is McDonalidized • Performs tasks formerly performed by workers • Bag your own groceries • Supervises workers • The ‘goldfish bowl’

  18. Do we get what we want… Advantages • Wide range of goods and services • Not tied to time and place • Get what you want when you want it • Increased uniformity • Stability, familiarity, and comfort • Rapid diffusion of innovation

  19. Efficiency Environmental problems Factory farming Calculability Health problems Supersize me Predictability Limits creativity No choices, no thinking Control Dehumanizes Irrationality of Rationality

  20. 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

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