To What Extent is McDonaldization Detrimental to Our Society?
- DOI
- 10.2991/assehr.k.211020.300How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- McDonaldization, Modernity
- Abstract
In his book the McDonaldization of Society, George Ritzer describes the process of McDonaldization in which more and more businesses, presumably influenced by the astonishing success of the McDonald’s, seek to promote “efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control”. He points out that the process is potentially detrimental and dehumanizing, arguing from a Weberian perspective that the rationality itself may cause irrationality. While it is true that the irrationality discussed by Ritzer can be both seen and imagined, such situation seems possible rather than necessary. Ritzer’s account, therefore, seems to lack a normative and conceptual value. In reality, the social issue raises public concern and requires immediate attention. McDonaldization seems to bring great harm to the society, as 2019 Netflix documentary called American Factory reflects the problem in reality. In the documentary, the workers are forced to devote themselves to highly industrialized productions. They are trained to work for hours, doing repetitive and uninteresting labour, and often under the condition of high temperature with a risk of being hurt. In this case, question remains regarding the negative impact that McDonaldization has on our society. This essay investigates McDonaldization from a more theoretical framework, and approaches the question through the perspective of the theory of alienation.
- Copyright
- © 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - QiJia HuangChen PY - 2021 DA - 2021/10/21 TI - To What Extent is McDonaldization Detrimental to Our Society? BT - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 1026 EP - 1029 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211020.300 DO - 10.2991/assehr.k.211020.300 ID - HuangChen2021 ER -