La Mcdonalización De La Sociedad

George Ritzer has taken central elements of the work of Max Weber, expanded and updated them, and produced a critical analysis of the impact of social structural change on human interaction and identity. The central theme in Weber's analysis of modern society was the process of Rationalization; a far reaching process whereby traditional modes of thinking were being replaced by an ends/meansanalysis concerned with efficiency and formalized social control. For Weber, the archetypical manifestation of this process was the Bureaucracy; a large, formal organization characterized by a hierarchical authority structure, well-established division of labor, written rules and regulations, impersonality and a concern for technical competence. Bureaucratic organizations not only represent the processof rationalization, the structure they impose on human interaction and thinking furthers the process, leading to an increasingly rationalized world. The process affects all aspects of our everyday life. Ritzer suggests that in the later part of the Twentieth Century the socially structured form of the fast-food restaurant has become the organizational force representing and extending the processof rationalization further into the realm of everyday interaction and individual identity. McDonald's serves as the case model of this process in the 1990's.
...McDonaldization,...is 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 of the rest of the world. (Ritzer, 1993:1)

How Far Has It Gone (local)?Since 1955 McDonald's has grown to 31,967 outlets worldwide (Ritzer 2011:2)(local) (Der Nürnburger, 2010).The central concepts employed in the fast-food industry have spread to all types of restaurants. Everything from pizza to lobster, from ice cream to bread, from alcohol to fried chicken is dominated by the Chain mentality.
We no longer have to go to the chains. They have come to us. Theyare in the suburbs, the central cities, the malls, our schools and military bases, our hospitals and airports, even our airplanes and ballparks. They dominate our highway interchanges-every exit looks the same.
It's not only the food industry that represents this process of McDonaldization. Toy stores (Toys R Us), Bookstores (B. Dalton's), Newspapers (USA Today), child care (Kinder Care), learning(Sylvan Learning Centers) and a host of others have followed.
"In the 1980s and 1990s McDonaldization has extended its reach into more and more regions of society, and those areas are increasingly remote from the heart of the fast-food business." (Ritzer 1994:137)
Each new spin-off serves to further extend the process. The "news bites" of USA Today have changed the way most local papers presentthe news, perhaps even the way we see and hear the news on TV-take a look at Headline Network News. And even the way "news" is constructed-work of PR managers and press releases.
Ritzer outlines five dominant themes within this McDonaldization process: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, Increased Control, and the Replacement of Human by Non-human Technology.
Efficiency
Efficiency meansthe choosing of means to reach a specific end rapidly, with the least amount of cost or effort. The idea of efficiency is specific to the interests of the industry or business, but is typically advertised as a benefit to the customer. Examples are plentiful: the drive-up window, salad bars, fill your own cup, self-serve gasoline, ATM's, Voice Mail, microwave dinners and supermarkets (versus theold-time groceries where you gave your order to the grocer). The interesting element here is that the customer often ends up doing the work that previously was done for them. And the customer pays for the "privilege." We end up spending more time, being forced to learn new technologies, remember more numbers, and often pay higher prices in order for the business to operate more efficiently...