10/23What is McDonalds?Food chainMultinational corporationCultural iconMassive employerMore McDonalds outside of the US than there are in the USProcessTables in the front, have to enter through the sides close to the counterGet to the front of the line and orderGet food, take it to a table, clean up messNot able to deviate from process/modelSet up to be highly efficientHighly efficient: customers do most of the work, food is predictable (know what you’re getting), flourishes because it is able to make a lot of food (focuses on quantity not quality)Little opportunity to deviate from highly controlled processThe McDonaldization of Society by George RitzerRationalizationThere is a best way to do somethingGenerally involves making it more efficient, controlled, predictable, more calculated, etc.Ex: McDonalds, online Banking, supermarkets, etc.To participate in social activities as efficient as possible, there are inefficiencies that are created from thisIronically, the systems we think are the optimum things can create their own inefficienciesHelps to facilitate mass production and mass consumption4 principlesEfficiencyLook for best routePredictabilityThings are the same from 1 time to anotherCalculabilityQuantity rather than qualityNon-human technologyDifferent degrees of McDonaldizationEx: Home DepotBefore it, you would hire other peopleRole of the customer is very importantWe are part of process in a way we never used to beWould not be successful without the need to consume somethingAbility to change the way we used to do things. Obliterates all other ways of doing thingsBecomes an imperialistic forceThe model will overtake all preexisting modelsMax Weber and George RitzerIron cage of rationality2 componentsImperialistic forceDegrees of thisIdea that it can take over old ways of doing thingsOnce it becomes successful, it becomes the only way of doing itTrapped in a processProcess becomes more important than the end it was desired to meetEx: DMVHas division of laborDifferent booths, counters, tellers, that are generally numbered and do something differentDon’t necessarily take people in like a McDonalds would. Not every counter can do everything.Each person has a very specific, defined taskSupposed to mean people do very specific tasks, that’s all they doIdea is that it will be most efficient way to meet all those endsIronically, this doesn’t always happenVery specific, defined way of meeting the end you need metAdherence to the model took precedence to result it was supposed to meetHuman condition of these environmentsScripted environments (in a McDonalds)Depersonalization effectMiddle ground where everything we do is scriptedResults in depersonalizationDehumanizes the situation when everything is scriptedConfines people to a particular way of interacting with people10/25McDonaldization“…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 2011).McDonaldsCheapCreates jobsProfitableHighly efficientPredictableComfortingNotion that there’s an experience they have available to them if they want itWider range of goods and services availableNew consumers, goods, methods of production, technologies, and forms of organizationPlaced in very specific locationsQuality of food is consistent/relatively uniformEveryone is treated the same; equality of conditionKey aspects:Efficiency, calculability, predictability, controlBased on Weber’s rationalization of societyBureaucracy: optimum means to an endStructured organizationDivision of labor, variety of officesA way to provide for a division of labor to ultimately accomplish a goalApplied to production and consumption, allows for McDonald’s to flourishTrapped in the “iron cage” of rationality- cannot deviate from the formal rulesRules become more important than the end they were meant to facilitateSystem takes precedent over the end it was meant to achieve in the most optimal wayExperience of the people involvedCustomer and employeesScripted interactionDepersonalizes and dehumanizesPotential for development of other skills left unrealized in this systemFundamental irrationality of iron cageNot personal, scripted, dehumanizesEmployeeSystem has very limited opportunities, many constraintsNotoriously treated poorly at McDonaldsWorking in positions that never really let you leave the positionsEconomic level of dehumanizationConstraints in system that create and perpetuate the inability to do anything else but work at McDonaldsPay is so poor that it doesn’t let you get a whole lot of skills, or leave this economic system in life52% of fast food families use public assistance___1 out of 2 fast food workers families are forced to use public assistance that costs taxpayers nearly $7 billioncan work full time and not get above the poverty threshold. Dehumanization10/28IKEA as an interesting example of McDonaldizationArrows on the floor. Controls youWant you to see products in a particular wayWhen you get off path you get lost, disorientedTry to sell you on the idea of how efficient it is to put together your own furniture. Saves them from doing workSelling us on the idea we’re saving money by doing it ourselvesContradicts in many ways that its actually efficientIts controlled (arrows, mazelike). Only way to be in IKEA is to participate the way they want you toFew employees on the floor at IKEA. Don’t really need themHighly calculated (dimensions, weight, cost are all displayed clearly. Tells you where to pick them up in warehouse)To IKEA, they think their process is efficientMost of them are identical on the outside and inside. PredictableRationalizationOptimum means to an endTouches on the values we embraceIKEA is not just in America; it’s internationalGlobalizedEpidemy of globalizationEach of the dimensions of McDonaldizationEfficiencyCalculability10/30IKEAEfficiency- customers do much of the work, one-stop shopping, most items on saleCalculability- huge size of the stores, feeling that you are getting lot at a low price, furniture in boxesPredictability- size, store layout, types of furniture. Global- items are more or less the same around the worldControl- the maze-like layout leads consumers through, self-check out the normIrrationality of rationality- time spent getting there and wandering through the store, the difficulty in assembling many of the productsIntrinsic in the ideas of rationality of