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My reflection on globalization
Imperialism in america
The mcdonaldization of society refers to
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Finding a Common Thread in Culture
The globalization of the American fast food industry has presented itself as a modern assimilation process across the globe. As the United States continues to dominate as a global economic power, there is not just a transition towards its social and cultural ideals, but also an assimilation as they continue to mold the ideologies of local groups around the world. The correlation between economic expansion and the rise in American influence can be traced back to the early twentieth century. During this time, the United States, was an imperial power that viewed imperialism as a central aspect of the vastly modernizing period. The latter giving rise to a concept noted as “national consciousness,” in which instead of embracing the differences of others, the United States aimed to assimilate everyone into one nation through a common thread: culture. Although the United States, itself is still establishing its own culture, this fragile new American culture has become dominant with the help of expanding technology in the modern age. As globalization brings about a new modernized period, traces of American imperialism have resurfaced once again, no longer under the definition of assimilation, but under the context of McDonaldization, in American fast food companies.
The imperial legacy of the United States, has a two fold effect, creating a problematic relation between culture and society. Since the twentieth century, a sense of dominant and subordinate cultures has surfaced. Provided its worldly influence in terms of political interactions, economic relations and cultural ideals, American culture has become a dominant force throughout the globe. Despite the American culture being new and composed of a...
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... many places around the world. The slow erosion of culinary traditions in Chinese culture is just one example of this issue. When globalization becomes a source of imperialism, eroding historical cultural ties under the pretense of modernization, the results are concerning. Combating the ill effects of this globalization process will require a reassessment of what globalization is meant to be in the world. The concept of international integration needs to be implemented in all aspects of the global world not just in terms of trade. Also, there needs to be a reevaluation of appreciation not only for the dominant modern cultures, but also for the local traditional cultures. Instead of finding a way to meet the standards of Americanization, there needs to be an attempt to precedents of globalization by integrating greater cultural diversity in the face of global trends.
In today’s world, technology and current norms drive a large portion of everyday life that the vocabulary becomes a common universal language. For example, if you don’t know or understand something, just “google” or ask “siri” about it, write a “blog” about a recent experience, or witnessed the latest “post” that has received over 1.6K “likes”. George Ritzer describes the same thing with the fast food restaurant McDonald’s in his video “The McDonaldization of Society”. He defines McDonaldization as the process by which principles of the fast food restaurant have begun to overflow and dominate all aspects of our world.
In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser talks about the working conditions of fast food meat slaughterhouses. In the chapter “The Most Dangerous Job,” one of the workers, who despised his job, gave Schlosser an opportunity to walk through a slaughterhouse. As the author was progressed backwards through the slaughterhouse, he noticed how all the workers were sitting very close to each other with steel protective vests and knives. The workers were mainly young Latina women, who worked swiftly, accurately, while trying not to fall behind. Eric Schlosser explains how working in the slaughterhouses is the most dangerous profession – these poor working conditions and horrible treatment of employees in the plants are beyond comprehension to what we see in modern everyday jobs, a lifestyle most of us take for granted.
Schlosser, E. (2004). Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal (first ed., Rev.). New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.
In the book Fast Food Nation: The Darks Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser claims that fast food impacts more than our eating habits, it impacts “…our economy, our culture, and our values”(3) . At the heart of Schlosser’s argument is that the entrepreneurial spirit —defined by hard work, innovation, and taking extraordinary risks— has nothing to do with the rise of the fast food empire and all its subsidiaries. In reality, the success of a fast food restaurant is contingent upon obtaining taxpayer money, avoiding government restraints, and indoctrinating its target audience from as young as possible. The resulting affordable, good-tasting, nostalgic, and addictive foods make it difficult to be reasonable about food choices, specifically in a fast food industry chiefly built by greedy executives.
In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser goes beyond the facts that left many people’s eye wide opened. Throughout the book, Schlosser discusses several different topics including food-borne disease, near global obesity, animal abuse, political corruption, worksite danger. The book explains the origin of the all issues and how they have affected the American society in a certain way. This book started out by introducing the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station beside the Colorado Springs, one of the fastest growing metropolitan economies in America. This part presents the whole book of facts on fast food industry. It talks about how Americans spend more money on fast food than any other personal consumption. To promote mass production and profits, industries like MacDonald, keep their labor and materials costs low. Average US worker get the lowest income paid by fast food restaurants, and these franchise chains produces about 90% of the nation’s new jobs. In the first chapter, he interviewed Carl N. Karcher, one of the fast food industry’s leade...
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.
American culture has completely encompassed the world. Even the smallest symbols of America are seen throughout international countries. The United States has become the center of technological advancements, and inventions to, in theory, better the lives of its people. As these ideas spread all over the world. On the contrary the effects are majorly negative, as these effects only change people into to becoming more “american” whether than embracing the beautiful culture they were brought up in. “Americanization” is continually altering the lives of foreigners for the worst.
James Watson’s McDonald’s in Hong Kong is a textbook example of globalization. According to Webster’s dictionary, globalization is defined as “worldwide integration and development”. In McDonald’s in Hong Kong, Watson discusses a well-known and successful American fast food chain migrating over seas and embedding itself in the Hong Kong culture. Although Hong Kong was already recognized as an extremely transnational civilization, there were worries that the country would lose cultural identity. The fears were that Hong Kong would become more Americanized and lessen their ties to the Cantonese ways.
... America's Cultural Role in the World Today. Access to International English, 2008. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society and has become nothing less than a revolutionary force in American life. Fast food has gained a great popularity among different age groups in different parts of the globe, becoming a favorite delicacy of both adults and children.
Fast food is widely considered a hallmark of American culture, but has spread worldwide. In a society where everyone is always on the go, the fast food industry has persuaded people to give up quality in favor of artificially-enhanced taste and drive thru convenience. Experts often blame fast food for obesity and related health problems. By using advancing kitchen technology to move towards efficient large-scale production rather than increased quality, the fast food industry has created lower quality food, forced lower standards of taste, and has caused adverse health effects in it’s consumers.
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.
Food is traditionally considered as a simple means of subsistence but has developed to become filled with cultural, psychological, religious, and emotional significance. Consequently, food is currently used as a means of defining shared identities and symbolizes religious and group customs. In the early 17th and 18th centuries, this mere means of subsistence was considered as a class maker but developed to become a symbol of national identity in the 19th centuries. In the United States, food has been influenced by various cultures such as Native American, Latin America, and Asian cultures. Consequently, Americans have constantly Americanized the foods of different cultures to become American foods. The process on how Americans have Americanized different cultures’ foods and reasons for the Americanization is an important topic of discussion.
The United States is a country with a diverse existing population today; this country is known as a melting pot of different cultures, each one unique in its own respect. Culture; differentiate one societal group from another by identification beliefs, behaviors, language, traditions, Art, fashion styles, food, religion, politics, and economic systems. Through lifelong, ever changing processes of learning, creativity, and sharing culture shapes our patterns of behavior as well thinking. The Culture’s significance is so intense that it touches almost every aspect of who and what we are. Culture becomes the telescope through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us. Trying to define the perplexing term of culture with varying component of distinguishable characteristics is difficult to restrict. Presenly, culture is viewed as consisting primarily of the symbolic, untouched and conception aspects of human societies.
Globalization has influenced almost each aspect of life in almost every nation. From economic to social to culture, this widespread exchange of goods, services and ideas have affected changes around the world. Even though the cultural influence in globalization is of slight significance to policy makers, its power has tremendous consequences to the nations involved and its people. Food is the oldest global carrier of culture.” Any changes in the foods that we eat, in its preparation, the way it is served and consumed diminishes the traditional beliefs of the people.