The McDonaldization of Society 5 eBook: George Ritzer: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

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Students love Ritzer’s McDonaldization!
"My ideas and feelings changed tremendously after reading the text because it really opened my mind up."

"The text opened my eyes up a bit to the world around me."

"[T]his text book is awesome because it really opens up your mind to think. I really love this text book, I think every student should at least read it and understand what McDonaldization is."

"I really enjoyed the writing style of the book. It was not overly technical, gave many practical and real-life examples, and appealed to my interests. I thought of it as a book I would recommend to friends, not as a textbook."

"I loved the book and really enjoyed the way it was written."

"I most enjoyed reading the four chapters explaining and providing examples for the four principles of rationality (Chapters 3, 4, 5 & 6). After reading these chapters, I had an extremely clear idea on what each principle entailed."

"I strongly recommend that this text should be use again in the future. It's a great text book and it helps us as students understand our society more and what our society had become."

"I would definitely recommend that both of my teachers continue to incorporate Ritzer's text into the courses. It is an unpretentious, easy to understand, and thoroughly enlightening text."

"It is an extremely effective and thought-provoking text for a Sociology course." (Student Reviews 20070725)

"The text is eminently readable. Many of my students . . . identify with the themes very rapidly. They see the connections with their own world of experience and gain confidence in thinking sociologically." (Michael Nofz 20070725)

"This book has been a fabulous success with students because it combines elements of critical social theory, readability . . . and popular culture." (Charles R. Frederick, Jr )

Product Description

Instructor Praise for This Book
"The text is eminently readable. Many of my students . . . identify with the themes very rapidly. They see the connections with their own world of experience and gain confidence in thinking sociologically." -Michael Nofz, University of Wisconsin

“This book has been a fabulous success with students because it combines elements of critical social theory, readability . . . and popular culture.” -Charles R. Frederick, Jr., Indiana University

Student Praise for This Book
“The text opened my eyes up a bit to the world around me.” “I really enjoyed the writing style of the book. . . . I thought of it as a book I would recommend to friends, not as a textbook.”

As one of the most noteworthy and popular sociology books of all time, The McDonaldization of Society 5 demonstrates the power of the sociological imagination to today’s readers in a way that few other books have. The McDonaldization of Society 5 has been updated with many contemporary examples that speak relevantly to today’s student. This engaging book, sure to spark debate both in and out of the classroom, connects the everyday world of the “twenty-something” consumer with sociological analysis.

New to McDonaldization 5

Presents a new concluding chapter on Starbuckization: A new Chapter 10 titled “The Starbuckization of Society?” examines the Starbucks phenomenon in relation to McDonaldization.
Links pop culture to McDonaldization with contemporary examples: Updated examples include online dating services, Viagra, MDMA (Ecstasy), text messaging, Chipotle, Pollo Campero, extreme sports, robotic surgery with the Da Vinci system, Snack Wraps, megachurches, and more.
Features an increased focus on globalization: Global issues are more prevalent throughout this edition, particularly in the discussion of the relationship between McDonaldization and the environment in Chapter 7.
Looks at precursors and future possibilities of McDonaldization: A revised Chapter 2 combines a discussion of the precursors of McDonaldization and content on dealing with contemporary changes in, and future possibilities of, a McDonaldized world.

Accompanied by High Quality Ancillaries

An Instructor Resources on CD, featuring PowerPoint presentations, suggested essay questions and activities, video resources, teaching tips, an interview with the author, and more, is available for qualified instructors. Contact Customer Care at 1.800.818.7243 (6am – 5pm PT) to request a copy.
A Student study site at www.pineforge.com/mcdonaldizationstudy5 includes interviews with the author, Learning from SAGE Journal Articles, a McDonaldization myspace page, student activities, and more.

Bundle Options - Explore discounted bundles available with this text. Our bundle prices are lower than the prices of most other introductory Sociology texts alone! Please contact your Sales Representative for more information.

Intended Audience
The bestselling The McDonaldization of Society is already in use in a variety of courses:

Sociology Business & Management

Introduction to Sociology Consumer Behavior

Social Problems Organizational Communication

Social Change Foundations of Leadership

Globalization

Sociology of Work

It is also popular in freshman seminars, as well as with those interested in social criticism.

Contributor to the SAGE/Pine Forge ASA Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Awards Fund

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

The McDonaldization of Society 18 Sep 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

If we are to agree with Ritzer, McDonalds has completely transformed our lives. To some extent he is right, and this is what is really scary. Ritzer argues how many businesses have emulated the McDonalds model of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. In essence, McDonaldized businesses offer products and services in an as efficient way as they can by offering a limited choice to their consumers. Standardization and homogeneity is to be vital to McDonaldization but has helped businesses globalise their operations.

Ritzer also goes one step further and shows us how McDonaldization has infiltrated into society as people desire to attain instantaneous gratification- and even how to some extent how our healthcare and education systems now seem to work on McDonald's ethos!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

The grobalization of nothing 2 Nov 2006

By Luc REYNAERT TOP 1000 REVIEWER

McDonalds 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.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful

Most textbooks put me to sleep, this one didn't! 15 April 2002

By Mr. Neil Allen

Being a business studies undergraduate student I had to read this text for an assignment. Most texts that I am forced to read put me to sleep. This one didn't. Ritzer is the founder of the idea of McDonaldization and in this book he puts forward his arguments in an interesting and easy to understand manner. I can honestly recommend this book if you have any interest in big corporate culture, even if you aren't studying this subject you'll enjoy the read. I didn't agree with everything Ritzer said, but I still enjoyed reading what he had to say. Also a good book if you are studying Max Weber or any form of rationalization. Overall an interesting book with good examples that should keep you reading and thinking for hours.