George Ritzer's McDonaldization of Society

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Hello, welcome to McDonald’s may I take your order…? A number three with a chocolate milkshake? No problem sir…that will be eight dollars and seventy-three cents”. One can say this is how our society works-fast, quick, instant-like McDonalds. George Ritzer’s McDonaldization of Society is based on his theory and social criticism on rationalization of society as a whole through the growth and principles of McDonald’s fast-food model of business. The book begins with an introduction chapter that describes the background of McDonalds and outlines the different chapters of the book. Chapter two discusses a history of socioeconomic developments that help to create ideas about McDonalds including theories of F.W. Taylor, Max Weber and Henry Ford, McDonalds in the present day, and what is predicted for the future of the McDonald system. In The McDonaldization of Society, author George Ritzer takes the main points of Max Weber’s work and updates them, providing an analysis of the impact of structural change on identity and human interaction. Instead of it being strictly about McDonald’s, it’s about how the principles of the fast food industry have come to control American society and the rest of the world. Max Weber’s central analysis of society was the process of rationalization, where normal ways of thinking are replaced by an ends/means analysis concerned with social control and effieinciecy. An excellent example of this, according to Max Weber, was the bureaucracy – a formal, large organization characterized by an authority structure (hierarchal), a division of labor, impersonality, written rules and regulations, and a an focus on technical competence. According to Ritzer, the fast-food restaurant has since become the primary forc... ... middle of paper ... ...as the same goal as far as efficient service as fast as possible without effecting the quality of their product. This is because McDonald's already has imprinted on people's minds that they will get the same burger, same friendly service, same salt-filled fries each and every visit in the quickest amount of time-which usually is not the case. They reinforce this idea on the minds of their customers through clever tools such as advertising on television-they make their fast food commercials look like McDonald’s is the be all end all and people fall for it. For example, every McDonald's sign is a tally of how many people in the world have dined there, which is currently at 99 billion served. The use of this sign reinforces to people that McDonald's is an icon in our society and many people will equate that large number with McDonald's being the best restaurant ever.

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