Rating: 
Summary: McDonaldization
Review: A world of rationalized business and activites controls our society...
I read this book for my social problems and public policies class. It is a very interesting look at the extreme amount of rationalization that exists in today's society. Ritzer's book goes into depth about the four parts of McDonaldization: predictablity, calculability, effiency, and control. If your intersted in learning more about this and some methods of breaking free, read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Weberian disenchantment and the hamburger--yuk!
Review: Expanded reprint of a classic sociological study of the reign of hamburger madness sweeping the planet. The basic idea is the study of the Weberian rationalization of cuts of beef followed by the Taylorization of the rationalized portions to mass consumption zones, the great American grossout, soon planetary in scope. The signature mechanics of this ritual is then the clue to much else in late capitalism, as the body itself, in the epidemic of weight problems, becomes the object of exploitations.
Rating:
Summary: A good but biased beginning!
Review: George Ritzer in this book gives us a quick survey of the history of McDonald's restaurants. Then he analyzes in depth the four parameters of this phenomenon : efficiency, calculability, predictability, control, and then moves to his criticism of this rationality, what he calls the irrationality of rationality. The book is absolutely biased because it does not take into account the tremendous improvements such a phenomenon brought to society : a certain liberation of women from housework with take-away restaurants, the possibility to work shorter hours by reducing the lunch-break to a very short period of time, hence enabling people to go home earlier and to have more free time thanks to less wasted time, the possibility for many millions of people to go to a restaurant, without spending there a tremendous amount of time, and some of those millions might never have had this opportunity in the old times. What's more Ritzer forgets that it has always been a fundamental objective of humanity to reduce wasted time, to reduce heavy, difficult and long tasks to mechanized lighter, faster and easier tasks. We can discuss the percentage of fat in McDonald's burgers, but we cannot say this type of rationalization goes against humanity : it is in perfect continuity with what humanity has always tried to do. When the printing press was invented it rationalised the production of books and made old « books » obsolete (what a loss when we know the beauty of such old middle-ages books), but it also enabled the multiplication of such books and the lowering of their cost, so that a whole revolution came out of it : the spreading of the printed Bible transformed the Christian world with no chance to go back to the limitation of the knowledge of and access to the Book to only a minority that could do and say what they wanted. This book is essential to understand our modern world, but it is dictating a model that has become in many ways obsolete. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
Rating:
Summary: Overall, well done but. . .
Review: He can be blinded by his own thesis in many instances. For instance, when he addresses the issue of consumers doing work that was prieviously done for them, in many instances, this can be prefferable, as with ATMs, home pregnancy tests, etc. Addressing trivial issues such as these (which, it could be argued, decreases one's reliance on other people) detract from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting Book!
Review: I was suprised that George Ritzer's "McDonalization of Society" is actually on here! I thought it was just considered a text book because it has been used in colleges throughout the country, including mine. I had to read it for my Sociology class and it kind of sounded boring at first. Later however I began to enjoy it. I wrote an evaluation of the book for the class and it's too bad that it's too long put on here...'cause this really is a great book. "McDonalization.." is not really about McDonald's company itself, but how other companies have been influenced by McDonald's and have a similar system of running their business. Examples they include range from Starbucks to Wall-Mart. If you're one of those people who get annoyed sometimes as the coorporation monopoly's on society then this book is for you. I really reccomend this book to anyone even if you're not a college Sociology student.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting Book!
Review: I was suprised that George Ritzer's "McDonalization of Society" is actually on here! I thought it was just considered a text book because it has been used in colleges throughout the country, including mine. I had to read it for my Sociology class and it kind of sounded boring at first. Later however I began to enjoy it. I wrote an evaluation of the book for the class and it's too bad that it's too long put on here...'cause this really is a great book. "McDonalization.." is not really about McDonald's company itself, but how other companies have been influenced by McDonald's and have a similar system of running their business. Examples they include range from Starbucks to Wall-Mart. If you're one of those people who get annoyed sometimes as the coorporation monopoly's on society then this book is for you. I really reccomend this book to anyone even if you're not a college Sociology student.
Rating:
Summary: an interesting experiece.
Review: In the "McDonaldizaton of Scoiety" George Ritzer does a good job of explaining his maine idea. Throughout the book Ritzer explians how the world is becoming more and more McDonaldized. In other words, the world is becoming a place where poeple rely on a society that is effiecient, calcuable, and predictable like the restaurant itself.
The maine thing I found interesting about the book was the fact that it was extrememly well explained. Ritzer explains all of his ideas in amazing detail. Secondly, I liked the fact that Ritzer offered so many explanations as to how our global society is becoming McDonaldized or mechanized. He offers in depth examples of how people in society like fast, effiecient, and predictable products. He beautifully correlates our society with the actual processes of McDonalds itself. One example is that our world has become so McDonaldized that we now try to control out own death to create predictability in our lives.
One negative aspect of this book that I picked up on while reading was the fact that Ritzer didnt share his personal thoughts with the reader until the end of the book. The body of his book is tied together seemlessly, one idea after another. However, at times his ideas can become repetitive and dry, often making the reader somewhat annoyed. These sometimes dry ideas are not supported by any personal feelings until the last chapter, which is a dissapointment.
On the whole, I feel that this book was quite good. The positives far outweigh the negatives. Rtzer does a good job of offering many examples, and going into great depth as to why our world is becoming more predictable and controlled by beuracratic tactics. It's just the slight lack of personal attention to his writing that caused him to get four stars out of five.
Rating:
Summary: an interesting experiece.
Review: In the "McDonaldizaton of Scoiety" George Ritzer does a good job of explaining his maine idea. Throughout the book Ritzer explians how the world is becoming more and more McDonaldized. In other words, the world is becoming a place where poeple rely on a society that is effiecient, calcuable, and predictable like the restaurant itself.
The maine thing I found interesting about the book was the fact that it was extrememly well explained. Ritzer explains all of his ideas in amazing detail. Secondly, I liked the fact that Ritzer offered so many explanations as to how our global society is becoming McDonaldized or mechanized. He offers in depth examples of how people in society like fast, effiecient, and predictable products. He beautifully correlates our society with the actual processes of McDonalds itself. One example is that our world has become so McDonaldized that we now try to control out own death to create predictability in our lives.
One negative aspect of this book that I picked up on while reading was the fact that Ritzer didnt share his personal thoughts with the reader until the end of the book. The body of his book is tied together seemlessly, one idea after another. However, at times his ideas can become repetitive and dry, often making the reader somewhat annoyed. These sometimes dry ideas are not supported by any personal feelings until the last chapter, which is a dissapointment.
On the whole, I feel that this book was quite good. The positives far outweigh the negatives. Rtzer does a good job of offering many examples, and going into great depth as to why our world is becoming more predictable and controlled by beuracratic tactics. It's just the slight lack of personal attention to his writing that caused him to get four stars out of five.
Rating:
Summary: Credit Ritzer for seeing and saying this
Review: It's nice to see that the book has been updated for the "new century," clearly it is a seminal work that gets at the root of the direction that our society is taking. For those readers who are troubled by mega-mergers and large corporations dumping toxins into lakes: this book provides the needed background information on how these globalizing systems develop and why. My only caveat is that now the term "Wal-Mart-ization, is probably more apropos given the rapid expanse of this enterprise. Two reasons why Wal-Mart is more appropriate. First, McDonalds is merely one small department within a Wal-Mart. And secondly, Wal-Marts have a detrimental effect (debate this on your own if you like) on the local economy. McDonalds, rarely had the kind of economic impact on their environs as Wal-marts do. I understand that McDonalds came first, though - so okay. There are other aspects that I'd like to see discussed in the book: 1. The factoid I've heard that countries with McDonalds don't go to war with each other; and 2. Is the deteriorating level of service at places like McDonalds indicative of a decline with something else in our society? I don't know what neighborhood Ritzer is from, but I wouldn't go in to the McDonalds near my college campus if you paid me. It also seems to be the place where the panhandlers are most prevalent. These would make for a nice epilogue to any new editions; I read the first.
Rating:
Summary: Credit Ritzer for seeing and saying this
Review: It's nice to see that the book has been updated for the "new century," clearly it is a seminal work that gets at the root of the direction that our society is taking. For those readers who are troubled by mega-mergers and large corporations dumping toxins into lakes: this book provides the needed background information on how these globalizing systems develop and why. My only caveat is that now the term "Wal-Mart-ization, is probably more apropos given the rapid expanse of this enterprise. Two reasons why Wal-Mart is more appropriate. First, McDonalds is merely one small department within a Wal-Mart. And secondly, Wal-Marts have a detrimental effect (debate this on your own if you like) on the local economy. McDonalds, rarely had the kind of economic impact on their environs as Wal-marts do. I understand that McDonalds came first, though - so okay. There are other aspects that I'd like to see discussed in the book: 1. The factoid I've heard that countries with McDonalds don't go to war with each other; and 2. Is the deteriorating level of service at places like McDonalds indicative of a decline with something else in our society? I don't know what neighborhood Ritzer is from, but I wouldn't go in to the McDonalds near my college campus if you paid me. It also seems to be the place where the panhandlers are most prevalent. These would make for a nice epilogue to any new editions; I read the first.
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