Monday January 30 y Exam III Study Guide Sociology I Consumerism A In 2006 consumer purchases accounted for 70 of U S gross domestic product Smart B Rationalization McDonaldization and Globalization How efficiency and standardiza tion as well as exploitation and alienation made consumption a global phenomenon II Formal rationality Weber believed formal rationality is what makes Ikea possible An optimum means to a given end as shaped by rules regulations and large social struc Emphasizes deliberate efficiency and calculability Ikea DMV UD A Bureaucracy The federal government is the 1 employer largest amount of employees Walmart is Felt that bureaucracy was the best example of adherence to principles of rationality in modern society the chief characteristic of a bureaucracy in theory is that it is the opti mum means to an end achieved with highly specialized roles of all the people involved in the system Critiqued labor in industrial capitalism that underlies rationality He said that these people were subject to alienation in these settings Marx s fundamental argument is that because the world of things has come to dominate the money that people earn for producing those things the workers became equated with those things and reduced to the cost of producing the products they produce D Dehumanization and degrees of alienation iron cage of rationality Marxist Analysis Alienation from other workers products they produce owners their own potential value of the world of things The devaluation of the human wold increases in direct relation with the increase in tures 2 B Weber C Marx 1 Monday January 30 y Iron cage Weber worried that we would become trapped by bureaucracies and thus have our basic humanity denied bureaucracy would become more important than the individuals that fulfill them one cannot deviate from the formal rules of the bureau cratic setting Irrationality emanating from these systems health effects environmental degradation dehumaniation disenchantment III McDonaldization of society 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 A Dimensions of McDonaldization Efficiency foods already made when it gets there Calculability emphasis on the quantitative aspects of products sold and services of fered Predictability assurance that products and services will be the same over time and in all locales false friendliness leads to dehumanization scripted interaction Control nonhuman technology comes to exert control over human workers and cus tomers Marx says humans cannot realize their capabilities B Examples in society Arby s IKEA fitness centers Burger King Wendy s Pizza Hut KFC Taco Bell Dunkin Donuts Chipotle C Irrationality of rationality Efficiency calculability predictability control all of the characteristics of rationality make for the irrationality of rationality dehumanizing and un personable IV Globalization and inequality Globalization is the worldwide diffusion of practices expansion of relations across conti nents and organization of social life on a global scale global system of capitalism Ritzer would say Ikea is the homogenization aspect of globalization website is in different languages in different countries A Global poverty Multinational corporations have concentrated social political and economic power they are external forces on economic activities in dependent nations Historical exploitation of poor nations by rich ones capitalistic world economy B Dependency theory 2 Monday January 30 y Poor nations brcomr dependent enrich ones remain underdeveloped purposefully An international division of labor that reproduces global inequality An internationalization of capitalization Dos Santos an historical conditions which shapes a certain structure of the world economy such that it favors soem countries to the detriment of others C Global consumerism Examples Ikea has 361 locations worldwide Consumption growth the consumerist vision of the world is largely fueled by North American European and Japanese culture and products Apple Nike Consumption goes from a means of survival to an end in and of itself Story of Stuff planned obsolescence means that the products they make are designed to fail and be replaced they must also replace our desire for them consumerism is all debt fnanced Over Dressed Consequences A symbol as a cause of problems such as environmental degradation dietary dangers capitalism and Americanization unbridled consumption in a world of finite resources and a fragile environment American s dump 20 5 million tons of waste textiles every year roughly 15 is recycled clothing production causes air and water pollution E waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is nearly 2X the size of Texas 3
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