121
See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Roland Robertson 146–47 ■
Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Harry Braverman 226–31 ■ Karl Mannheim 335
rationalization” is most clearly
exemplified by the McDonald’s
fast-food restaurant chain.
The McDonald’s way
Wherever you are in the world, a
McDonald’s restaurant never seems
to be far away. In fact, there are
around 35,000 restaurants in more
than 100 countries around the
globe. And no matter where that
happens to be, there is a virtually
flawless level of uniformity and
reliability. This familiarity of
experience is a definitive feature
of McDonald’s restaurants all
over the world and it is directly
attributable to the strong emphasis
the McDonald’s corporation places
on rationalization. Ritzer terms this
development “McDonaldization,”
and claims that the tendencies
and processes it refers to have
infiltrated, and now dominate,
“more and more sectors of
American society as well as
the rest of the world.” He argues
that McDonaldization has five
main components: efficiency,
calculability, predictability, control,
and “the ultimate irrationality of
formal rationality.”
Efficiency refers to the
bureaucratic principles employed
by the corporation as it strives, from
the level of organizational structure
down to the interactions between
employees and customers, to find ❯❯MODERN LIVING
McDonaldization
affects virtually every
aspect of society.“McDonaldization”
is the boldest realization
of Weber’s notion of
rationalization.The principles
of fast-food provision
have spread to ever-
wider spheres of
commercial and
social activity.The McDonald’s
fast-food restaurant
model is characterized by
efficiency, calculability,
predictability,
and control.The model has
gained widespread
appeal because of
convenience and
affordability.George Ritzer
George Ritzer was born in
1940 in New York City. His
father drove a taxi and
his mother worked as a
secretary. Ritzer claims that
his upbringing inspired him
to work as hard as he could
at his studies in order to
distance himself from the
often lowly standard of living
that characterized his “upper
lower-class” childhood.
Since 1974, George Ritzer
has been at the University
of Maryland, where he
is now Distinguished
University Professor. While
the McDonaldization thesis
is his best-known and most
influential contribution to
sociological theory, he is
primarily a critic of so-called
consumer society and has
published prolifically across
a wide range of areas.Key works1993 The McDonaldization
of Society: An Investigation
into the Changing Character
of Social Life
1999 Enchanting a
Disenchanted World:
Revolutionizing the Means
of Consumption
2004 The Globalization
of Nothing