Following the failure of the socialist state, the universal consolidation in capitalism and consumerism has led to controversy in what is currently known as globalization (Movius, 2002). These developments have happened alongside the electronic revolution and transformed communication. Globalization is the idea that the world is becoming smaller with travel, communication and media being more accessible than ever connecting people across the globe. Globalization has many aspects such as political and economical; but it is cultural globalization that occurs through the media. Sassatelli (2007) defines cultural globalization as the emergence of specific set of values and beliefs that are shared around the globe. Individuals have been led to believe …show more content…
Neo-Marxist critic, Herbert Schiller, referred to it as the homogenised North American ‘cultural slop’. American sociologist, George Ritzer (1993) offered an insight into globalization and consumption in his work, The McDonaldization of Society. In modern rational society, consumers desire the knowledge what to expect in all settings. They expect tomorrows Big Mac to be a replica of today’s and yesterdays. The fast food industry has managed to perfect replicated settings, scripted interactions with customers and predictable employee behaviours and predictable products (Sassatelli, 2007). These idealisms have spread to other global chains such as The Hard Rock Café and the Body Shop and brands such as Nike. The utter global presence of certain goods, brands and practices that are encountered all over the world is a sign of convergence toward homogenised culture. It reduces culture to material goods, if culture is the creation and understanding of meaning through symbolisation, the theory of cultural homogenization must include the notion that people’s interactions with these goods is involved in the way in which we create cultural worlds and make sense of our lives. Sassatelli (2007) states doubt however and writes that it ignores the hermeneutic assumption which is a vital part of the movement of symbolic form. Culture does not transfer this easily. Movement between cultural and geographical areas involve interpretation, translation and
At the end of chapter six, George Ritzer lists suggestions for those of us who wish to combat McDonaldization, a term he coined himelf, and the topic of this essay. Ritzer warns the reader to not fall victim to the, “mindless trap,”(Ritzer 158) of Mcdonalized systems. He writes that, “a major motivation behind writing this book is to alert reader to the dangers of McDonaldization and to motivate them to act to stem its tide”(Ritzer 161). Despite McDonaldizations great momentum, natural limits and personal interests provide barriers to it. Ritzer feels that the struggle itself, to combat Mcdonaldization, is ennobling. In this essay I will attempt to accomplish three objectives. First, I will relate Ritzers study to max weber’s theory of rationalization. Second, I will describe the
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.
Malone, Elizabeth, and George Ritzer. "Globalization Theory: Lessons from the Exportation of McDonaldization and the New Means of Consumption." Amerstud (2008): 97-112. Web. 26 Apr 2011. .
Since, “only ten percent of Chinese people can afford a Big Mac”, people in China must be choosing to spend money at McDonald’s rather than elsewhere (Drucker, 4). In the United States, people frequent fast food restaurants despite having the opportunity to cook cheaper and healthier meals using ingredients from the grocery store. If McDonaldization is harming us by homogenizing our culture, who exactly is being harmed? It’s unreasonable to assert that it is the American consumer, who can choose between fast food, the grocery store, and a wide variety of thriving restaurants selling food from all over the world. Furthermore, people in other Countries aren’t having their cultures wiped out by American fast food. As James Watson points out, McDonalds needed to adapt in many ways to fit in with the culture of foreign countries like China (Watson). More dramatically, as Stephen Drucker observed in 1996, “This summer McDonald 's will open its first restaurant in India. It will serve no hamburgers” (Drucker, 6). Even if fast food were colonizing the world, this level of local adaptation makes it clear that McDonalds is by no means serving everybody the same
Imagine the world 50 years ago. Now think about it 40 years ago, 30, 20, and 10, then today. When these changes are examined, they may seem like a gradual shift, but none are as drastic as the shift that has most recently occurred. Ideas like this are explored in The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer. It is also discussed how alongside the innovations that have erupted so rapidly, society has changed and generally become more “McDonaldized” in all aspects.
The effect of popular culture on the consumption of fast food, especially Western fast food when first introduced in Asia cannot be doubted. Watson talks about “the transnational bonds of empathy and shared interest” that younger people form due to popular culture and how fast food, among other things such as shopping malls, are everywhere now to accommodate this new global culture. At first the association with America was a selling point for McDonald’s which was considered an experience and a way to connect with the rest of the world, particularly for teenagers in Hong Kong who wanted to pretend that they lived somewhere other than a small colony in the edge of Maoist China .
After the cold war, word ‘globalization’ was commonly used at a time of unprecedented interconnectedness when advanced nations experienced a ruthless development by exploiting energy resources and stressing culture forms in developing countries. To identify the definition of ‘globalization’, it is significant to clarify its appearance as well as implication.
Globalization is not a new phenomenon as it was introduced by the philosopher Hegel. The term became popular and widely used in 1980s in academic circles. Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among peoples, companies, and government of different nations. It is a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. Globalization is defined as “a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding”(Waters, 1995, p. 3). According to Steger (2003), this process is referring to the transformation of present social conditions to the new global world. This process influenced the environment, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world. In general, globalization can be classified into three major types which are economic, cultural and political (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
Lule argues that the village encompasses a range of values, knowledge and experience. The function of the global village is to promote interaction between human beings. However, he admits that media is essential in the process of globalization. Hollows (2015) argues that the process of globalization includes several different aspects such as economics, politics and culture. They overlap and interact with each other due to deep historical roots. For Hollows (2015), large Western media corporations are powerful in international markets. They sell media products to other regions. As a consequence, Western nation-states tend to strength their dominance at a global level. Not only does this spread Western values and promote Western cultural identity, but also attracts profits through selling Western products. Foreign media products have a significant impact on local media markets and so impact on the local economy. This economic and cultural influence enables Western countries to also exert political dominance. The developments of media technology is essential to globalization (Lule, 2012). One of the earliest mediums is considered as scrip. The very first forms of writing allowed people to share information with others across long distance and even beyond their own lifetimes. The development of the printing press permitted the transmission of information across the world quickly. Knowledge and values that are rooted in different cultural bases help humans shape the world. Electronic media (film, TV, radio) is the latest breakthrough to foster globalization and digital media enables people to have the ability to gain a wide range of information. According to Lule (2012), one function of the media is to spread cultures, and so to disseminate media products through television, movies and the Internet and interact with
Explain the concept of culture. Why is it important to avoid ethnocentricity and gain cultural literacy?
The social sciences tend to point to the larger forces in our society. When patterns like this appear we recognize that these issues are cultural rather than individual. According to Ritzer, McDonaldization of society refers to how the fast food model has permeated all aspects of modern society from shopping malls, newspapers, doctor’s offices, schools and even family life. Food is produced in factories today and even agricultural practices have incorporated the ideas of the assembly line into how plants and animals are produced.
Globalization is the connection of different parts of the world. Globalization results in the expansion of international, cultural, economic, and political activities. As people, ideas, knowledge, and goods move easily around the globe, the experiences of people around the world become more similar. (“Definition of Globalization“, n.d., ¶ 1)
Globalization has taken place in the past when state and empires expanded their influence far outside their border. However, one of the distinctions of globalization today is the speed with which it is transforming local culture as they took part in a worldwide system of interconnectedness. Through globalization, many cultures in the world have changed dramatically.
In the recent years globalization has begun to appear as one of the most predominant issues in the world. The term ‘is generally used when discussing the technology and advances in an assortment of areas including, but not limited to, everything from technology to capital. The main aspects that comprise globalization are debatable. Throughout this essay, globalization will be explored as a recent social change in our society as it relates to incorporating economic relations and incorporations political relations around the world, despite the fact that this change is often portrayed as a problematic and unequal one of the restrictions of mobile subjects and connectivity. To begin my segment, I’ll begin to discuss on some of the most important definitions of globalization. Lastly, I’ll begin to investigate the imbalanced and difficult practices that make up globalization.
A question raised here that why we called the world as a Global Village or what does Globalization mean in real? If we look few years back, I was very difficult for people to get them connected or make contact with their dear ones who lived in far areas, people just knew about the famous food of any country but didn’t have availability to have it. People didn’t get full information of any news at the time, what’s going on other countries; they didn’t have any access to make them updated with all this stuff. But now a day, the scenario gets change with the help of new scientific inventions in media sector. Communication is one of the basic elements which play an important role in flourishing the process of globalization in all over the world. Technology is the basic extension of increasing communication at same time in different places. Technology eliminates the concepts of space and distance; it becomes easy for anyone to get connected with anyone at any corner of world through using internet, social websites and technological tools. New inventions in communication and media