Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?: Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we're not as rational as we think when we make decisions.
One of my favorite fields of study in college was Sociology. In one of my classes I was assigned to read George Ritzer's book "The McDonaldization of Society" (1993). Even with its flaws and weak assumptions the book left a strong impact on my understanding about the topic of control and choice. The famous sociologist Max Waber is credited with his original ideas about bureaucracy and change, but Ritzer brought it home for the readers by updating the ideas and relating them to our everyday understanding of something as simple as the McDonalds menu.
The above videos are related to this topic but stand on their own and do not reference either Weber or Ritzer.
Continue below to read more about the concept behind the term McDonaldization:
(Taken from Wikiperia)
McDonaldization (or McDonaldisation) is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1993). He describes it as the process by which a society takes on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management. Where Max Weber used the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as having become a more representative contemporary paradigm (Ritzer, 2004:553).
Ritzer highlighted four primary components of McDonaldization:
* Efficiency – the optimal method for accomplishing a task. In this context, Ritzer has a very specific meaning of "efficiency". Here, the optimal method equates to the fastest method to get from point A to point B. In the example of McDonald's customers, it is the fastest way to get from being hungry to being full. Efficiency in McDonaldization means that every aspect of the organization is geared toward the minimization of time.
* Calculability – objective should be quantifiable (i.e., sales) rather than subjective (i.e., taste). McDonaldization developed the notion that quantity equals quality, and that a large amount of product delivered to the customer in a short amount of time is the same as a high quality product. This allows people to quantify how much they're getting versus how much they’re paying. Organizations want consumers to believe that they are getting a large amount of product for not a lot of money. Workers in these organizations are judged by how fast they are instead of the quality of work they do.
* Predictability – standardized and uniform services. "Predictability" means that no matter where a person goes, they will receive the same service and receive the same product every time when interacting with the McDonaldized organization. This also applies to the workers in those organizations. Their task are highly repetitive, highly routine, and predictable.
* Control – standardized and uniform employees, replacement of human by non-human technologies
With these four processes, a strategy which is rational within a narrow scope can lead to outcomes that are harmful or irrational.
The process of McDonaldization can be summarized as the way in 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.” (Ritzer, 1993:1).
In subsequent publications, Ritzer conceptualized a cultural process he labeled "de-McDonaldization" as a reaction to McDonaldization, and cited modern baseball stadiums with simulated nostalgic features as one example for this phenomenon.
The McDonaldization of Society is a 1993 book by sociologist George Ritzer.
In the book, Ritzer takes central elements of the work of Max Weber, expanded and updated them, and produced a critical analysis of the impact of social structural change on human interaction and identity. The central theme in Weber's analysis of modern society was the process of rationalization; a far reaching process whereby traditional modes of thinking were being replaced by an ends/means analysis concerned with efficiency and formalized social control. For Weber, the archetypal manifestation of this process was the bureaucracy; a large, formal organization characterized by a hierarchical authority structure, well-established division of labor, written rules and regulations, impersonality and a concern for technical competence.
Bureaucratic organizations not only represent the process of rationalization, the structure they impose on human interaction and thinking furthers the process, leading to an increasingly rationalized world. The process affects all aspects of our everyday life. Ritzer suggests that in the later part of the 20th century the socially structured form of the fast-food restaurant has become the organizational force representing and extending the process of rationalization further into the realm of everyday interaction and individual identity. McDonald's serves as the case model of this process in the 1990s. The book introduced the term McDonaldization into learned discourse to describe mind-numbing sameness.
Comments