Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: An Introduction to McDonaldization
McDonald′s as a Global Icon
The Long Arm of McDonaldization
The Dimensions of McDonaldization
Critique of McDonaldization: The Irrationality of Rationality
Illustrating the Dimensions of McDonaldization: The Case of Ikea
The Advantages of McDonaldization
What Isn′t McDonaldized?
A Look Ahead
Chapter 2: The Past, Present, and Future of McDonaldization: From the Iron Cage to the Fast-Food Factory and Beyond
Bureaucratization: Making Life More Rational
The Holocaust: Mass-Produced Death
Scientific Management: Finding the One Best Way
The Assembly Line: Turning Workers Into Robots
Levittown: Putting Up Houses -- "Boom, Boom, Boom"
Shopping Centers: Malling America
McDonald′s: Creating the "Fast-Food Factory"
McDonaldization and Contemporary Social Changes
Chapter 3: Efficiency: Drive-Throughs and Finger Foods
Streamlining the Process
Simplifying the Product
Putting Customers to Work
Chapter 4: Calculability: Big Macs and Little Chips
Emphasizing Quantity Rather Than Quality of Products
Reducing Production and Service to Numbers
Chapter 5: Predictability: It Never Rains on Those Little Houses on the Hillside
Creating Predicatable Settings
Scripting Interaction With Customers
Making Employee Behavior Predictable
Creating Predictable Products and Processes
Minimizing Danger and Unpleasantness
Chapter 6: Control: Human and Nonhuman Robots
Controlling Employees
Controlling Customers
Controlling the Process and the Product
The Ultimate Examples of Control: Birth and Death?
Chapter 7: The Irrationality of Rationality: Traffic Jams on Those "Happy Trails"
Inefficiency: Long Lines at the Checkout
High Cost: Better Off at Home
False Friendliness: "Hi, George"
Disenchantment: Where′s the Magic?
Health and Environmental Hazards: Even Your Pets Are at Risk
Homogenization: It′s No Different in Paris
Dehumanization: Getting Hosed at "Trough and Brew"
Chapter 8: Globalization and McDonaldization: Does It All Amount to ... "Nothing"?
Globalization
McDonaldization and Grobalization
Nothing-Something and McDonaldization
Nothing-Something and Grobalization-Glocalization
The Case for McDonaldization as an Example of the Glocalization of Something
The Case for McDonaldization as an Example of the Grobalization of Nothing
Chapter 9: Dealing With McDonaldization: A Practical Guide
Creating "Reasonable" Alternatives: Sometimes You Really Do Have to Break the Rules
Fighting Back Collectively: Saving Hearts, Minds, Taste Buds, and the Piazza di Spagna
Coping Individually: "Skunk Works," Blindfolded Children, and Fantasy Worlds
Some Concluding Thoughts
Chapter 10: The Starbuckization of Society?
Howard Schultz and the Founding of the Starbucks Empire: No More Swill
What Has Starbucks Added to, or Removed From, the McDonald′s Model?
Should the Concept of "Starbuckization" Replace "McDonaldization"?
The "Starbucks Effect"
The Convergence of Starbucks and McDonald′s
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has also been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award by the American Sociological Association, an honorary doctorate from LaTrobe University in Australia, and the Robin Williams Lectureship from the Eastern Sociological Society. His best-known work, The McDonaldization of Society (8th ed.), has been read by hundreds of thousands of students over two decades and translated into over a dozen languages. Ritzer is also the editor of McDonaldization: The Reader; and author of other works of critical sociology related to the McDonaldization thesis, including Enchanting a Disenchanted World, The Globalization of Nothing, Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society, as well as a series best-selling social theory textbooks and Globalization: A Basic Text. He is the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2 vols.), the Encyclopedia of Sociology (11 vols.; 2nd edition forthcoming), the Encyclopedia of Globalization (5 vols.), and is Founding Editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. In 2016 he will publish the second edition of Essentials of Sociology with SAGE.

Reviews

Students love Ritzer’s McDonaldization!
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"[T]his text book is awesome because it really opens up your mind to think. I really love this text book, I think every student should at least read it and understand what McDonaldization is."

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*Student Reviews*

"The text is eminently readable. Many of my students . . . identify with the themes very rapidly. They see the connections with their own world of experience and gain confidence in thinking sociologically."
*Michael Nofz*

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*Charles R. Frederick, Jr*