The McDonaldization of Society 5,   ISBN:9781412954303

Customer Rating: 

Control - standardized and uniform employees, replacement of human by non-human technologies. McDonald's has also been obsessed with efficancy and it sucks. McDonald's is horrid but it gives one a "quasi-religions' feeling.

The author Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as having become a" more representative contemporary paradigm" and I agree most companies want to be like McDonald's.

"A single homogeneous one face one smile one man." (What a nightmare.)

The food says the author "irredeemably horrid" it is ground kneaded and extruded by heavy machinery that compacts it so the texture is like that of a baloney sausage ....once cooked the burger is insulated in a soggy bun topped with pickle slices that seemed recycled or shredded lettuce that is wet.

Quasi religious feeling indeed Ronald is more well know then Santa.
Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun !!

It is not just McDonald's most corporations are becoming more inhumane.
Worse then that is the fact that we have already witnessed the The McDonaldization of Society what is next?

Customer Rating: 

I though that this book would be more focused on McDonalds but as it turns out it is more about the trends that are so well encapsulated in the business that most people will be familiar with, McDonalds.

In many ways the book focuses on the more negative impacts of the modern culture of 'fast food'. This is not to say that the issues are not relevant or valid, however the growth of such modern businesses doesn't happen without their ability to successfully satisfy a need.

In many ways the book portrays this commercialism as the culprit yet is this simply happening because that is what modern society is demanding? Cheaper costs and faster service? It is a bit of the chicken and egg syndrome.

All in all the book is a worthwhile read as it demonstrates how far the 'scientific methods' that have been successfully applied and adopted in McDonalds are now common place. It really makes you wonder where it will all end and whether it is really providing benefit. Even if it isn't, as long as there is demand it will remain an applicable business strategy.

Customer Rating: 

I am reading this book for my Sociology class and it has completely changed the way I look at society. A must read

Customer Rating: 

McDonalds's is G. Ritzer's perfect paradigm for explaining the actual structure of our planet. He has built his portrait on Max Weber's rationalization concept. This concept expresses man's search for the optimum means to a given end by rules, regulations and larger social structures. Its driving force is economics (capitalism).
This concept affects virtually all aspects of our society all over the world: work, education, health care, leisure, transport, sports, politics, justice, religion and the family. It shows a planet centered on rational consumerism.
The ingredients of the system are efficiency, calculability, predictability and nonhuman technologies for controlling people. It was greatly helped by technological breakthroughs like automobiles, TV, the computer, internet and lasers (DVD) and by fundamental changes in Western societies (single parent families, working women, higher mobility, increasing disposable income, time savings, mediatization and advertising).

But Max Weber foresaw also the lurking irrationalities, the dehumanization and homogenization, which expressed themselves in environmental and health problems (air pollution), McJobs (disenchantment, false friendliness), traffic jams, bureaucratization.
McDonaldization produces the perfect way of life for people who, as Nietzsche said, use the wrong conjugation: they don't live, they are lived.

For G. Ritzer, McDonaldization is the `grobalization of nothing': a world dominated by the imperialistic ambitions of nations, corporations and organizations, whose main intent is growth of their power, influence and profits. `Nothing' is a social form that is generally centrally conceived, controlled and comparatively devoid of distinctive substantive content.'

The author would like to see a more deMcDonaldizated world (see the many recommendations at the end of the book), but McDonaldization is still on the march, certainly in developing countries.

This book is a crucial, superbly documented, text for all those who want to understand the world we live in.
A must read.

Customer Rating: 

This book was required reading for an undergraduate sociology course for Human Relations majors (sociology course for sociology/education/psychology). It was an eye opening experience because the readers/continuous learner is encouraged to step inside the corporate framework that directly affects our ideas and acceptance of an ideology of busines, etc based on the McDonald's corporate culture.

Our class found it powerful reading and most were challenged to think about and ask, "what are we really doing to improve our lives, culture and global community?"