- Paperback: 328 pages
- Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc; Revised New Century Edition edition (19 Feb 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0761988122
- ISBN-13: 978-0761988120
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 293,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
"The book provides a theoretical and analytical framework that both reflects reality and helps college students understand the reality of the world in which they grew up, live in, and are likely to continue to experience not only in the United States but throughout the world."
(Celestino Fernandez 20031003)“I love this book; it is a contemporary classic. . . . I would certainly use this book in an undergraduate theory course.”
“From my viewpoint, what I need is a book that spurs debate and stimulates critical thinking among my students, particularly on the societal consequences of rationalization. Ritzer’s book does exactly this. The strengths of the book are its connection to “real life” as well as the possibility of using it as a platform for discussing business practices seen from the viewpoint of citizens, rather than managers. . . . I would surely adopt its new edition and use it in a wide range of courses.”
“I use this book in an introductory level social problems and public policy course. The book is also used in my department in many sections of introduction to sociology. It works well in introductory level courses. . . . It is a good book and has been a great teaching tool. I find the book helps students to see rationalized environments where they could not see them before. Vision is a good thing. . . the book still has a long shelf life ahead.”
“This is an important book. Its wide recognition is well deserved. Its central strength is the clarity and brevity with which it makes accessible an extraordinarily important and complex process shaping the postmodern world.”
“I am impressed with the amount of examples the author has gathered from around the world for the book. Examples are current, interesting, and illustrative. They mesh well with the text and help enormously in explicating complex processes underlying McDonaldization.”
“I have enjoyed using this book. I recommend it to other education professionals and, on occasion, have given copies of this book to friends and relatives as gifts. The strengths are obvious.”
“The opening chapters are very strong. I very much like the way Weber’s ideas are brought to life. . . . This is such a good opportunity to bring more theory into awareness for students. . . . It is very engaging and brings the reader into the content in a wonderful way.”
"This well-written title is a theoretically based work in social criticism. . . . McDonald's and its clones have created a positive public image, but Ritzer gives the public discourse a little balance by focusing on the problems created, and the dangers posed, by the process. . . . Ritzer asks: "Does it all amount to . . . Nothing?" (cf. his Globalization of Nothing, 2004). The last chapter on dealing with McDonaldization is thought-provoking. . . . Highly recommended." (CHOICE )
Product Description
'This is an important book. Its wide recognition is well deserved. Its central strength is the clarity and brevity with which it makes accessible an extraordinarily important and complex process shaping the postmodern world.' - Peter Hoffman, Loyola Marymount University
'I love this book; it is a contemporary classic. . . . I would certainly use this book in an undergraduate theory course.' - Philip Cohen, University of California, Irvine
One of the most popular sociology books of all time has been thoroughly updated to examine how McDonaldization has roared into the 21st century. The McDonaldization of Society: Revised New Century Edition, discusses how McDonaldization and the broader process of globalization (in a new Chapter 8), are spreading more widely and more deeply into various social institutions such as education, medicine, the criminal justice system, and more.
This Revised New Century Edition provides many new, relevant examples from recent events and contemporary popular culture, including the ever-increasing global proliferation of McDonald’s and other fast food franchises, shopping malls, and similar commercial entities. Their impact is examined in the post-September 11, 2001 era.
The McDonaldization of Society is ideal for use in a wide range of higher-education courses and will be of equal interest to anyone interested in social criticism. The book offers readers new insight into the society they are constructing around them. (20031003)
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Ray Kroe (1902-1984), the genius behind the franchising of McDonald's restaurants, was a man with big ideas and grand ambitions. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Ray Kroe (1902-1984), the genius behind the franchising of McDonald's restaurants, was a man with big ideas and grand ambitions. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
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!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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
Format:Paperback
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.
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