McDONALDIZATION Vs.

GLOCALIZATION

A STUDY BASED ON MAX WEBER’S BUREAUCRATIZATION

OF SOCIETY

MODERNITY AND BUREAUCRACY

RATIONALIZATION

MAX WEBER AND BUREAUCRACY:

Hierarchy of authority

Authority based on administrative rules

Impersonal institution

Workers act as “offices” rather than individuals

No private possession of professional goods

Ritzer defines McDonaldization as:

“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”

GEORGE RITZER AND McDONALDIZATION

Rationalization of society in terms of fast food chains

Though pioneered by bureaucratic features, Ritzer insisted on naming it as “McDonaldization” rather than “Bureaucratization” of the society.

Conglomeration of bureaucracy and McDonald’s fast food chains

Ritzer saw it as an inexorable part of this society

ELEMENTS OF McDONALDIZATION AS GIVEN BY RITZER:

EFFICIENCYCALCULABILITYPREDICTABILITYREPLACING PEOPLE WITH NON-HUMAN TECHNOLOGIESCONTROLTHE IRRATIONALITY OF RATIONALITY

Imagining “predictability”-

“One kid who works here told me why he likes the mall…. It’s because no matter what the weather is outside, it’s always the same in here. He likes that.”

-Kowinski

HOMOGENIZATION OF CULTURE

Disneyfication (also called Disneyization) describes the transformation of something, usually society at large, to resemble the Walt Disney company’s theme parks. It mainly implies homogenisation of:

-Consumption

-Merchandising

In the case of places, this typically means replacing what has grown organically over time with an idealized and tourist-friendly environment.

ASPECTS OF DISNIFICATION

THEMING

HYBRID CONSUMPTION

MERCHANDISING

The French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard and “hyper-reality”

GEORGE RITZER AND

GEORGE RITZER’S STANCE ON GLOCALIZATION

Post-modernist notion Interpenetration of global and local Global heterogeneity De-hegemonization and cultural pluralism Assimilation of cultural hierarchy

HETEROGENIZATION OF CULTURE

PRESENT SCENARIO

Living in a period of a paradox, in fact an amalgamation of both McDonaldization and Glocalization.

Benjamin Barber’s “Jihad Vs. Mcworld”

Which is affecting us more as individuals?

Ponder and answer yourself!