McDonaldization is a controlled, predictable, and efficient way of doing things. Yes, it’s just like the restaurant McDonaldsfast, quick and taste the same wherever you go. In the documentary “The Business of Being Born,” Epstein shows how nurses…
The fourth concept is control. We become more dependent on the very things that McDonaldization creates because we are in less control while computers are in more control. The companies control the wages they pay to each of their employees. There is a huge wage gap among males and females. Currently, the pay for women is approximately 79% less than what men are paid for performing the same job or holding the same position. The gap is even worse for women of color. Since the 1970’s, the vast majority of women have been part of the labor force, yet these family ideals and the assumption that women are better suited to domestic responsibilities with the family live on. There is legislation against this type of exploitation, but it still exists. As Weber states on his chapter of bureaucracy, “the ruled, for their part, cannot dispense with or replace the bureaucratic apparatus once it exists, for it rests upon expert training, a functional specialization of work, and an attitude set on habitual…
While further expanding the conversation on McDonaldization in American Society I would have to say that drive-through windows and supersized food options at restaurants along with banks, education systems and clinics, showcase McDonaldization because they base everything off the four dimensions within Ritzer’s…
Note: Most of the characters discussed in this book are real-life and well-known icons of the American retail food industry. Please keep in mind that the author of this book had an intended purpose of portraying the American fast food industry as a socially unconcerned bastion of corporate greed influenced only by the collection of dollars through the exploit of the naiveté and health of its citizens. Others may…….…
Furthermore, I believe that Ritzers argument that the world is becoming Mcdonaldized is correct. It is evident in many ways that his argument is correct, for instance, the company Toyota focuses on the quantity of cars it produces which makes them more money unlike the company Rolls Royce which produces less cars. Another example that proves Ritzers argument is correct is that nowadays ordering products online is more convenient than going to the store because the products take less time to arrive and people have different options for…
1. The McDonaldization of Society is a theoretical observation. Describe this observation in your own words. Lastly, detail how this idea has presented itself in your own city or community.…
The “McDonaldization” of society, is what Ritzer believes to be the direction the country is moving in. In the text, Ritzer discussed the way a Mcdonald’s restaurant works, and how it relates to society today. Components such as “efficiency, calculability, uniformity, and control” (Appelbaum, P.R.) are good examples of how behavior is becoming more routine. In relation to society, Ritzer argues that “McDonaldization is making social life more homogenous, more rigid, and less personal.” (Appelbaum, P.R.) In the McDonalds system, the goal is for the consumers to get their products quickly, or to master a method in the fastest way possible. Because of this, technology has played a huge part in the process, making human responsibility decrease.…
Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal explores the effects of the spread of multinational fast food corporations into other countries, and the resulting loss of national culture. In his chapter “Global Realization” Eric Schlosser claims that “The global expansion of American fast food is homogenizing cultural identities; like Las Vegas, it offers “a brief sense of hope… that most brilliant illusion of all, a loss that feels like winning” (Schlosser). Schlosser intentionally chooses the order and content of the information and examples he provides in order to promote his main claim. He uses both subtle and direct strategies to persuade his reader. In order to critically evaluate the validity of his argument, it is important to explore different perspectives of this issue by taking into consideration about what others have to say regarding this matter before coming to a conclusion.…
the placement of a McDonald’s franchise in every community with more than 5,000 inhabitants AND the domination of numerous sectors of societies throughout the world by principles initially used by fast food restaurants.…
George Ritzer, in his acclaimed sociological commentary, The McDonaldization of Society, 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” (Ritzer). Ritzer deems modern Western society an entity in which the individual in his or her natural creative, free-thinking state is rapidly being eclipsed by an authoritative, de-humanizing force in the name of technological progress. Ritzer names four major aspects key to the McDonaldization process: predictability, control, calculability, and efficiency (Ritzer). Ritzer asserts that via these four elements comprising the McDonaldization phenomenon, our society, along with myriad societies that emulate or are influenced by ours, is rapidly growing more impersonal, hierarchical, and mindlessly efficient—in short, more like a well-oiled fast food restaurant assembly line, and less like a society of interacting individuals.…
26. McDonaldization is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurants--efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control---are coming to dominate more sectors of American society.…
According to George Ritzer, in his book The Mcdonaldization of Society, he defines this theory of Mcdonaldization of having four main components. They are:…
The four characteristics of McDonaldization are: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, and Control. Efficiency is the key characteristic as it will determine the profit margin. Increased profits are gained by lowering costs. And the labor of workers are the chief cost to a company. To maintain efficiency in this manner, many companies deskill jobs. The product being a low-wage position that can be filled by anyone. Obviously, McDonaldization creates the “working poor” singlehandedly in only one…
Following George Ritzer’s theory of McDonaldization, this course examines the pros and cons of living in a rationalized world where standardization, predictability, and control prevail. As students learn the sociological concepts of bureaucracy, consumer society, social structures, social change, and social interaction, they will develop their sociological imagination to reclaim a place for creativity, meaning, individuality, and free will in the late modern world.…
The McDonalds Corporation has become a powerful symbol of America’s service economy, which is now responsible for 90 percent of the country’s new jobs. In 1968, McDonalds operated about one thousand restaurants. Today it has about thirty thousand restaurants worldwide and opens almost two thousand each year. An estimated one out of every eight workers in the United States has at some point been employed by McDonalds. The company annually hires about one million people, more than any other American Organization, public or private. (Schlosser 5).…