SOCI 2070
McWorld
Today’s Class
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Defining McDonaldization
Origins of McDonaldization
Principles of McDonaldization
McDonaldization Beyond McDonald’s
The Irrationality of Rationality?
Today’s Readings
Required
1.
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:
3.
Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Collins,
2001, 225-252.
4.
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 dining
 Retail businesses
 Education
 Health care
 Travel 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.
2.
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
3.
4.
5.
6.
Bureaucracies
Expert, technical knowledge
 Technical superiority
 Stability
 Predictability

Bureaucracies
concentrate power at the top
 erode the capacity for spontaneous
action
 dehumanize
 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=r
elated
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
America

McDonald’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…
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
Irrationality of Rationality
1.
Efficiency


2.

Health problems
Supersize me
Predictability

Environmental
problems
Factory farming
Calculability

3.

4.
Limits creativity
No choices, no
thinking
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 wellrounded 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