The McDonaldization system offers the society an opportunity to get food cheaper and faster. On the other hand, not only has this system revolutionized the way we obtain food, but changed the way we live. In today’s society, everything revolves around time, and individuals are used to the style of living in a fast moving environment. In the article, “The McDonalds System,” George Ritzer proclaims, “that many other aspects of the society are being, or will be, McDonaldized. This raises the issue of why McDonald’s model has proven so irresistible. Four basic and alluring dimensions lie at the heart of the success of the McDonald’s model and, more generally, of the process of McDonaldization “(453). It is evident that the McDonald’s model is incorporating four strategies in providing services that allow us to get products easily. First of all, the McDonald model is efficiently in providing customers services. For instance, individuals the drive-through window offers individuals the commodities obtain fast-food meals without getting out of their vehicle (Ritzer 443). Secondly, the McDonald model offers customers a bargain of getting more food at a cheaper prize in a convenient time manner. Customers can buy fast-food meals for fewer than five dollars, as oppose to getting a pound of organic apples in the supermarket. This does not take in to account the time one has to spend choosing the “good quality” of organic apples. Thirdly, the McDonald model, offers “predictability. … Knowing that McDonalds ‘offers no surprises, that the food we eat one time or in one place will be identical to the food we at another time or in another place” (Ritzer 454). This means that any fast-food meal we buy in Chicago is going to taste the same... ... middle of paper ... ...vis elaborates “[T]o think the others think-and perhaps even the ability to think are learned characteristics. These are the result of years of exposure to people living in groups, especially the acquisition of language. … Our speech for example, helps shape our basics attitudes and orientations to life” (123). In other words, being able to communicate and interact with others help individuals adapt to their environments. Through the cases of Anna, Isabelle, and Genie Davis teach us the importance of socialization. These girls, were deprive and isolated at a young age, as a result they never learned to socialize with the world around them. They did not experience learning skills that shaped their brains academically and socially. Consequently, of their environment not conditioning them to act a certain way; they were not able play a humanly role in a society.
McDonalds. What had started as a humble family owned drive-through has become a multi-million dollar industry. Everywhere one goes, there are reminders of how amazingly widespread this company has become, whether it be seeing McDonald’s famous golden arches on a billboard or hearing the catchy “I’m Lovin’ It” tune in a commercial. But more than this, McDonalds has become part of our global identity– our McWorld.
The McDonaldization Thesis presupposes some familiarity with Ritzer's earlier work, The McDonaldization of Society (1993), in which he defines McDonaldization as "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" (1). These principles include efficiency, predictability, calculability (or an emphasis on quantification), and control (especially via non-human technologies). Taken together, they constitute the formal (functional or instrumental) rationality that undergirds McDonaldization. In the present work, Ritzer continues to sound the alarm by depicting McDonaldization as "a largely one-way process in which a series of American innovations are being aggressively exported to much of the rest of the world" (8).
For example, McDonald's drive-through is the most efficient way for customers to get a quick and easy meal. Predictability guarantees that products and services provided by McDonald's will stay the same. Calculability accentuates the quantifiable aspects of a product regarding its size and cost and the amount of time it takes for a customer to receive their food. McDonald's put emphasis on the term quantity of quality, although a McDonald's meal is not of the highest quality compared to other restaurants the company offer customers more for their money, for example, their 99p menu, where you can get several items such as a cheeseburger for less than a pound. Finally, control/dehumanization, deskilling the workforce by giving team members a limited number of simple tasks under the watchful eye of managers alongside the introduction of predictable non-human labor in the form of new
By observing these advantages one could clearly see how the demensions of Mcdonaldization: effeciency, predictability, calcuability, and control are used in the production process. But on the contrary, the irrationalities that exist are less obvious to the untrained eye. Maximum effeiciency has potential to limit human action and skill. Predicability has potential to limit inovation and creativity. An over exageration on quantity, when concerning calculability, could potentially effect a good or service’s quality. Finally, through the application of nonhuman tecnologies, control is being dehumanized. Ritzer writes, “Rational systems inevitably spawn irrationalities that limit, eventually compromise, and perhaps even undermine their rationality” (Ritzer 123). He goes on to say that rational systems are often
McDonaldization is the process in which the principles of popular fast food companies such as McDonald’s are appearing throughout the world in many aspects of our modern society. As McDonaldization sweeps across the globe, The authors of McDonaldization Revisited argue that “‘Americanisation’ is so often a synonym for cultural decline” (Alfino, Caputo, & Wynyard , 1998, p. 8). George Ritzer claims that this is due to the rationalization of society as McDonaldization is meant to signify the optimal fusion of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control (Ritzer, 2011). The intricacies of the human touch are utterly eliminated from this process, and what is left is an uninviting, cold, and unforgiving concept. When the novelty of something so foreign and American wears off, adaptation is needed to sustain one’s position in other countries. One research design type that researchers might utilize to view McDonaldization would be observation of the adaptation and cultural assimilation across different parts the world. This can be measured with ethnographies, the systematic study of the customs of people and cultures.
...l acts with children. Socialization internalizes these norms in the individual shaping the resulting personality of the individual. Lack of exposure to a social system result in someone who is not human as in the cases of Anna or Isabelle, two girls isolated at birth for 5 and 6 years respectively. Both these girls lacked any ability to speak, smile or even laugh. They lacked all aspects of personality. In effect they were not human as a result of their isolation. However exposure to the social system changed them rapidly toward being human.
This essay will be explaining the definition of sociology, the sociological factors of obesity using Symbolic Interactionism Theory and the Functionalism Theory and a description of the medical condition obesity and how it may affect individuals suffering from it.
Destin Cretton’s film titled, Short Term 12 depicts the struggles of young woman named Grace with a tough exterior and how that exterior slowly disintegrates as she learns to deal with her troubled past. While the former troubled teen learns to come to terms with her past, she works as a supervisor and acts as a guide for troubled teens at an at-risk group home. Furthermore, in analyzing this film from a medical sociological perspective, I will focus on the characters and their experience of being a mental patient. Given there were many characters who were deemed as mentally ill, I will focus my character analyzation on Jayden. In discussing Jayden, I will also compare her experience and the experience of other characters to two of this week’s
A world without the Big Mac, Happy Meals, Chicken McNuggets, and the phrase “I’m lovin’ it,” is almost inconceivable. People around the globe have become accustomed to the high gleaming golden arches that make up the famous emblem for McDonald’s. McDonald’s has grasped the concept that culture flows from power. In this case, the American culture flows through the veins of this fast-food giant and the more that is supplied, the greater the demand. It is no secret that McDonald’s has become one of the world’s largest fast-food retailers. It has become a well known icon that has played a huge part in globalization, with chains located in many different countries… transforming the meaning of fast-food all around the world.
Typically the fast food industry is associated with urban development, franchised operations which become chain restaurants across the globe that offer standardized meals, so that consumers can enjoy their favorite meals anywhere (Borade, G. (2012). Tracy V. Wilson states that McDonald’s was the first fast food restaurant to utilize a speedy assembly-line system to prepare food when the McDonald brothers opened up a redesigned restaurant in 1948, in which other chains followed a couple years after in the 1950’s (Wilson, n.d.). The speedy delivery made McDonald’s the largest fast-food chain restaurant in the world
Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization of Society. Revised New Century Edition. California: Pine Forge Press, 2004.
RITZER, G (2008) The McDonaldisation of Society (5th edition) London: Sage. (Ch. 3 – Efficiency)
Is Mcdonaldization Inevitable? George Ritzer’s, Mcdonaldization of Society, is a critical analysis of the impact on social structural change on human interaction and identity. According to Ritzer, Mcdonaldization “is 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 rest of the world” (Ritzer, 1). Ritzer focuses on four foundations of Mcdonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These are the commandments of any rationalized corporation. However, they are not carried out from the point of view of the consumer. Efficiency, for example, may entail the placing of great inconveniences upon a consumer for the sake of efficient management. Calculability may involve hiding certain information from the consumer. Predictability and control may involve a company's ability to predict and control consumer behavior, not the consumer's ability to predict what kind of product or control what kind of service he gets. Ritzer calls such breakdowns "the irrationality of rationalization." Ritzer points out the irrationality of rationality, as all of the supposed benefits of Mcdonaldized systems backfire: waiting in long lines, suspect quality, little or no customer service, little or no customer service, the illusion of large quantities for low prices, and severely limited selection of choice. Throughout Mcdonaldization of Society, Ritzer describes Mcdonaldization as largely negative and often destructive. While Mcdonaldization is rapidly taking over American society and spreading to the rest of the globe, it is not something unjustly imposed on the American people. The consumerist culture of America has groomed the public to seek efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These principles grow in importance and value in contemporary America. Even when given the choice to avoid a Mcdonaldized establishment or product, people will flock to it. I agree with Ritzer’s analysis of a Mcdonaldized society, but I feel that Ritzer has failed to provide any real solutions to the Mcdonaldization process. I will support Ritzer’s analysis of the Mcdonaldization process, but also show that it is inevitable and essential in the American society to have a rationalized system. Ritzer stresses that “Mcdonaldization” does not just refer to robotlike assemb...
Typically the fast food industry is associated with urban development, franchised operations which become chain restaurants across the globe that offer standardized meals, so that consumers can enjoy their favorite meals anywhere (Borade, G. (2012). Tracy V. Wilson states that McDonald’s was the first fast food restaurant to utilize a speedy assembly-line system to prepare food when the McDonald brothers opened up a redesigned restaurant in 1948, in which other chains followed a couple years after in the 1950’s (Wilson, n.d.). The speedy delivery made McDonald’s the largest fast-food chain restaurant in the world
When society thinks about the local McDonald’s, they probably do not think “innovation’. That is because everyone has become accustomed to the many novelties that McDonald’s has introduced over the years. Some people do not even know that McDonalds was the leader in innovation being the first major international fast food restaurant, with the first drive-through window. What many people do not realize is that McDonald’s continues to drive innovation in fast food. Some times the innovation is well advertised, but other times they are designed so that customers will never even notice (Ritzer, 2004).