Soc 205: Social Problems

Fall 2012

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McDonaldization--is society becoming more like a fast food restaurant?

 

Sociologist Max Weber and rationalization – a BIG historical process

  • Societies are becoming more formal, more ordered, more institutional -- why?
  • Think of exceptions (wilderness hiking? Religion? "Slow food" movement? Organic?? Burning man? Confused? Read the FAQ! Or check out the 209-word mission statement!)
  • Self-help books—do they really help anyone but the author and the self-help industry??
  • Modern education, socialization—why does it take industrial societies so long to socialize their young?
  • What about sex (gee, what's on the Cosmo cover this month?)
  • Size, complexity, and social order . . . Rationalization is one effort to explain the relationship.
    • Weber asks, as institutions get bigger, more complex, how to manage them?
    • Specialization, formal rules, hierarchical (usually pyramidal) structure, separation of office and office holder, accountability/documentation/calculability, efficiency ...
  • The bureaucracy is the organizational expression of this—not the ‘red tape’ definition that is synonymous with bad administration, though;
  • Bureaucracies have evolved because they are seen as more efficient, predictable ways to control people and organizations; (think of the organizational chart);
  • Specialization—why?
  • Rationalization's violente extremes: Hitler and the holocaust

McDonaldization--applying rationalization, the principles of fast food

  • Franchising—chains (think of malls—they’re all the same all over, right? Even in other countries)
  • Uniformity of product
  • Control over production (from spud farmers to trainees), specialization—Weber?
  • Spawned a shift in eating habits (2008, 2011)
  • Don’t forget profit—most of McDonaldization is done for commercial gain (but not all—efficiency is a powerful motivator)
  • Language—McMansions, McJobs, other McWords
  • Retail and consumption—mainly deals with private sector, capitalism, customers, etc.
  • It’s global

Rationalization and McDonaldization

  • So . . . . how to accommodate a huge lunch crowd without turning people away???

Four principles of McDonaldization (come up with examples outside of fast food)

Efficiency

  • Streamlining processes
    • e.g., breaking down jobs into simplified tasks requiring little training to perform)
    • Waiting in lines ....
  • Simplification (e.g., menu, choices, terror alerts and interpretations)
  • Unpaid work (by customers: busing tables, getting drinks, ATMs, opening doors, parking cars, self-service, etc.)
  • Efficiency isn't NEW . . . but its use in the food sector was novel (and profitable).
  • Efficiency for whom? (who benefits from McD's efficiency)

Calculability

Control

Predictability

  • Uniformity of product--every quarter pounder with cheddary cheese, every french fry, should taste the same, whether it's made in Sheboygen, Wisconsin, Tokyo, or Guadalajara.
  • The role of branding (what about McDonald's? Here's more commercials)
  • Ultimate goal--predictability of profit, income (by creating uniform products consumers develop some loyalty to)
  • A certain portion of consumers want predictable products, and McDonaldized businesses want . . . predictable consumers.

Try it at home!

 

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