Response Paper: The McDonaldization of Society
George Ritzer is a Professor at the University of Maryland and has received the American Sociological Associations Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Award. Among being a professor, he has also written books in theory to Sociology, one of them being McDonaldization of Society. In our modern society, technology has become such a huge part of our everyday lives. For example, you hear people saying, “Google” something or did you “blog” about it. Ritzer did the same thing with the famous fast-food restaurant McDonalds in his book McDonaldization. With that, I will discuss the dimensions of McDonaldization, what bureaucracy is, what Max Weber’s “Iron Cage” is, how the Holocaust relates to bureaucracy, …show more content…
“The Holocaust was a distinctive product of Western civilization…and required the rationality of the modern world”, said Bauman. (Page 32 and 33) For example, they Nazi’s wanted a perfect society that was free of Jews. Thus, it had all of the basic characteristics of rationalization. “It was an effective mechanism for the destruction of massive number of human beings”, said Ritzer. (Page 33) They found it more efficient to use gas, focused on quantity by seeing how many people could be killed in a short amount of time, and finally, the victims were managed by a huge non-human technology. “The Holocaust was organized around the principles of formal rationality, relying extensively on the paradigm of that type of rationality-the bureaucracy”, said Ritzer. (Page 34) Thus, there is a chance that this could happen again. As scary as that seems, its …show more content…
“The rise of new technologies and the growth in knowledge and information processing are also characteristic of postindustrial society”, said Ritzer. (Page 47) Thus, a postindustrial society will be dominated by creative knowledge rather than by routine. However, this does not mean that McDonaldization will completely disappear. It has and will continue to expand. Another successful aspect that McDonalds brings to the table is using scripts. “Scripts can be a source of power to employees, enabling them to control the interaction with customers”, said Ritzer. (Page 92) Employees can use the scripts to protect themselves from insults from the public and such routines guarantee equal treatment. However, it can also be insulting by making the employees seem unresponsive or “robot like”. Concluding, McDonaldization is happening in our society. McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants offer alternative labor-intensive, home-cooked meals to families since the 1950’s because of two very important things. They are affordable and convenient. These principles are very important in our modern society and I can only imagine seeing them getting bigger and better as our society grows and continues the journey on
George Ritzer is a Professor at the University of Maryland and has received the American Sociological Associations Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Award. Among being a professor, he has also written books in theory to Sociology, one of them being McDonaldization of Society. In our modern society, technology has become such a huge part of our everyday lives. For example, you hear people saying, “Google” something or did you “blog” about it. Ritzer did the same thing with the famous fast-food restaurant McDonalds in his book McDonaldization. With that, I will discuss the dimensions of McDonaldization, what bureaucracy is, what Max Weber’s “Iron Cage” is, how the Holocaust relates to bureaucracy, …show more content…
“The Holocaust was a distinctive product of Western civilization…and required the rationality of the modern world”, said Bauman. (Page 32 and 33) For example, they Nazi’s wanted a perfect society that was free of Jews. Thus, it had all of the basic characteristics of rationalization. “It was an effective mechanism for the destruction of massive number of human beings”, said Ritzer. (Page 33) They found it more efficient to use gas, focused on quantity by seeing how many people could be killed in a short amount of time, and finally, the victims were managed by a huge non-human technology. “The Holocaust was organized around the principles of formal rationality, relying extensively on the paradigm of that type of rationality-the bureaucracy”, said Ritzer. (Page 34) Thus, there is a chance that this could happen again. As scary as that seems, its …show more content…
“The rise of new technologies and the growth in knowledge and information processing are also characteristic of postindustrial society”, said Ritzer. (Page 47) Thus, a postindustrial society will be dominated by creative knowledge rather than by routine. However, this does not mean that McDonaldization will completely disappear. It has and will continue to expand. Another successful aspect that McDonalds brings to the table is using scripts. “Scripts can be a source of power to employees, enabling them to control the interaction with customers”, said Ritzer. (Page 92) Employees can use the scripts to protect themselves from insults from the public and such routines guarantee equal treatment. However, it can also be insulting by making the employees seem unresponsive or “robot like”. Concluding, McDonaldization is happening in our society. McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants offer alternative labor-intensive, home-cooked meals to families since the 1950’s because of two very important things. They are affordable and convenient. These principles are very important in our modern society and I can only imagine seeing them getting bigger and better as our society grows and continues the journey on