McDonaldization
McDonaldization is a process which is occurring all across the world, and while it is tying cultures together through globalization, it is also causing negative consequences throughout society. McDonaldization is a term created by a sociologist named George Ritzer when he wrote his book The McDonaldization of Society in 1993. He describes this term as what happens whenever a culture begins to show traits and characteristics similar to those displayed by the major fast food company McDonald's. These traits were defined by Ritzer into four categories: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, and Control. The trait of efficiency is displayed when a government or society attempts to complete a task such, such as providing education reform, in the cheapest and shortest way possible. By doing this, nations can save much needed revenue, but at the same time will have to make sacrifices as to the overall quality of the project they are going after, such as the poor quality of meat used in McDonald's food. This is a major downside to McDonaldization, and has taken a major toll on countries such as Zimbabwe, which actually lost points in it's rating of quality of education since 1970. The second characteristic of a country going through McDonaldization, Calculability, refers to a major emphasis placed on quantity rather than quality. The fast food industry exemplifies this by providing a massive amount of food to consumers, but the food provided is very much below the standard of "good food". This has earned these corporations a great deal of income, but the consumers of their products, many of whom simply cannot afford to dine at higher quality establishments, suffer from the lack of nutritional value provided by the lacking food. Colleges which attempt to take in the highest number of students and give them degrees from a standardized curriculum in the shortest amount of time, such as the University of Phoenix, are being called "McUniversities", because the education they provide is below par with the rest of the colleges across the country, but the number of students which the university graduates is astounding because the students know they can quickly and easily get a degree. Predictability is the third characteristic demonstrated by McDonaldization. It is the trait which shows that people will return to a place, whether it be a fast food restaurant or a government sponsored organization, as long as they know that they will receive the same product that they got the previous time they were there. The element of giving a consumer knowledge that they will receive a product identical to the one they got last time, makes the necessity of the food to have good quality drop, because they know there is no chance the product they desire will be of significantly lesser quality. The final characteristic, which is control, states that the governing body which is acting along the principles of McDonald's management should have complete control over employees, practices, or the properties which guide the government's decisions. North Korea's military is the ideal example of this trait, as they require all men born in the country to enlist and serve. For this reason they have the largest active military in the world, and they can know now that their size will only increase, due to their strict laws. Because the government is in complete control of the futures of the men of their country, they are guaranteed to have an incredibly large active military for generations to come, so they can use precious financial resources on more important aspects of society, such as education and healthcare. This result of McDonaldization proves to be a very positive one, but the end product of the process usually results in a government more concerned with gaining revenue as opposed to helping the people who populate and support the nation it presides over.
A typical schoolhouse in Zimbabwe:
About.com article on McDonaldization: http://sociology.about.com/od/Works/a/McDonaldization-of-Society.htm
"McDonaldization.com - What Is It?" McDonaldization.com - What Is It? McDonaldization, 2000. Web. 04 Oct. 2013
Crossman, Ashley. "The McDonaldization of Society." About.com. About Sociology, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2013.
Visconti, Virginia. "The McDonaldization Thesis." IU Thesis. Indiana University, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2013.
