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The McDonaldization of Society

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This site is intended to enhance your use of  The McDonaldization of Society, eighth edition, by George Ritzer. Please note that all the materials on this site are especially geared toward maximizing your understanding of the material. 

Now in its  Eighth Edition , George Ritzer's  McDonaldization of Society  continues to stand as one of the pillars of modern day sociological thought. By linking theory to 21st century culture this book resonates with students in a way that few other books do, opening their eyes to many current issues, especially in the areas of consumption and globalization. Through vivid, story-telling prose, Ritzer provides an insightful introduction to this fascinating topic and aides students' critical development. This new edition has been fully updated to include a new focus on McDonaldization of the workforce.  

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge George Ritzer for writing an excellent text and for reviewing the assets on this site. Special thanks are also due to Susan Wortmann of Nebraska Wesleyan University and Jill Rowe of Western Michigan for creating the ancillaries on this site.

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The McDonaldization of society

An investigation into the changing character of contemporary social life, by george ritzer.

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"George Ritzer's seminal work of critical sociology, The McDonaldization of Society, continues to stand as one of the pillars of modern day sociological thought. Building on the argument that the fast food restaurant has become the model for the rationalization process today, this book links theory to contemporary life in a globalized world and resonates with students in a way that few other books do. Ritzer opens students’ eyes to many current issues and shows how McDonaldization’s principles apply to other settings, especially in the areas of consumption and globalization. Through vivid story-telling prose, Ritzer provides an insightful introduction to this fascinating topic and aids students' critical development."

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Includes bibliographical references (p. [206]-212) and index.

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The McDonaldization of Society

• George Ritzer - University of Maryland, USA

Good, lively introduction to globalization that students can easily relate to

The classic text for any course exploring aspects of globalization, culture and consumption. The text provides an up-to-date analysis of the homogenisation (or McDonaldisation) of society, drawing on the most recent examples, which students can easily apply at any level of study. A fundamental and essential text for any course exploring globalisation in the context of Sociology, Geography, Politics or Economics.

This updated edition offers a new chapter which examines Starbucks. Students felt they could relate to many of the updated examples and support the ideas on environmental issues and McDonaldization

Thought provoking, helped make sense of many theories and myths around our changing society.

This is a book that applies classical sociological theory in a very interesting and wise way and so it is very insightful in explaining and understanding sociological theory in practice.

George Ritzer

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.

McDonaldization of Society: Definition and Examples

Charlotte Nickerson

Research Assistant at Harvard University

Undergraduate at Harvard University

Charlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Saul Mcleod, PhD

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BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, Ph.D., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years experience of working in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Social Psychology.

Key Takeaways

• McDonaldization is a term used to describe the penetration of American cultural and economic products throughout the world. It is used symbolically and is drawn from the market and ideological success of Mcdonald’s fast-food franchises all over the world.
• McDonaldization is a process through which certain principles of fast food management, such as efficiency, come to dominate the ethos of various sectors of society. It was developed by sociologist George Ritzer in his 1995 book The McDonaldization of Society .
• McDonaldization is an updated version of Max Weber”s rationalization, which argues that the traditions, values, and emotions as motivators for behavior in society are being replaced with rational and calculated ones.
• The four characteristics of McDonaldized systems are efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. In essence, McDonaldized systems are built to provide consistent services to many customers in a way that is often quick and low-cost.
• Critics have argued that McDonaldization spurs on effects contrary to its principles, in some cases decreasing efficiency, introducing costs that cannot be seen until far after the fact, and reducing the rights and wages of workers.

Table of Contents

History and Overview

McDonaldization is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant — efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control — come to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world (Ritzer, 2018).

McDonaldization, as described by Ritzer (2013), is a reconceptualization of rationalization and scientific management.

Rationalization refers to the replacement of traditions, values, and emotions as motivators for behavior in society with rational and calculated ones.

Whereas the sociologist Max Weber (2015) used the model of bureaucracy to represent the direction of his changing society, Ritzer sees the fast-food restaurant as being more representative of how contemporary societies are changing.

What are the Four Principles of McDonaldization?

McDonaldization, according to George Ritzer (2018) has four key principles: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control through non-human technology.

These lie at the heart of the success of McDonald”s, and, more generally, of all McDonaldized systems.

Ritzer argues that McDonald”s and other McDonaldized systems have succeeded because they offer consumers, workers, and managers the advantages of these.

Efficiency involves finding and using the optimum method for getting from one point to another.

McDonald”s drive-through, for example, provides one of the fastest possible ways to get from being hungry to being full. The fast-food model also offers other methods for satisfying needs.

A business fashioned on the McDonald”s model may offer, or claim to offer, efficiency in, say, exercising, losing weight, lubricating cars, getting new glasses, completing taxes, making online purchases, or ride-hailing.

The workers in a McDonaldized system function by following steps in a predesigned and generally well-choreographed process (Ritzer, 2018).

Calculability

Calculability emphasizes the quantitative aspects of the products sold — such as their portion size or price — and services offered (how quickly someone can get the product).

In McDonaldized systems, quantity is equivalent to quantity — services that provide a lot of something, or are inexpensive or very fast are automatically better.

For example, the McDonald’s “Dollar Menu” quantifies both a low cost and the feeling that people are getting a lot of food for a small sum of money (Ritzer, 2018).

Consumers can also make calculations in terms of time. They may calculate, consciously or not, how much time it would take to go to a McDonald”s, be served food, eat it, and return home in comparison to the time required to prepare food at home.

Ritzer argues that this is important to other food delivery chains — say, pizza restaurants — as well as brands that emphasize obtaining any good or service quickly, such as fast fashion.

Workers within McDonaldized systems emphasize the quantitative, rather than the qualitative aspects of their work. Because the quality of work must be uniform, workers focus on how quickly tasks can be accomplished.

Ritzer (2018) argued that digital services such as Facebook and Amazon are heavily McDonalized, and that the calculability aspect of McDonaldization has been enhanced by “big data.”

Predictability

McDonaldization is also built on predictability, meaning that the products and services will be more or less the same over time and in all locations.

McDonald”s hamburgers should be virtually identical today in New York as they will be next week in London. Consumers, according to Ritzer, take comfort in knowing that McDonald”s offers no surprises.

The workers in McDonaldized systems also behave in predictable ways, by following corporate roles and the demands of the systems in which they work. What workers do and even say is highly predictable (Ritzer, 2018).

The fourth element of McDonaldization, control, is exerted over the people who enter a McDonald”s. The lines, limited options, and uncomfortable seats of a McDonald”s encourage its customers to eat quickly and leave.

Workers in McDonaldized organizations are also controlled, often in a more blatant way. These employees are trained to do a limited number of tasks in exactly the way they are told to do them.

This control is reinforced by both the technologies used by the company and the way the organization is set up (Ritzer, 2018).

Advantages of McDonaldization

McDonaldization has numerous advantages, both for consumers and businesses. According to Ritzer (2018), these include:

A wider range of goods and services available to a larger proportion of the population

Availability of goods and services depends less on time or geographic location.

People can acquire what they want or need near-instantaneously

Goods and services of more uniform quality

Widely-available and economical alternatives to high-priced, customized goods and services

Services for a population that has less time due to longer working hours

The comfort of stable, familiar, and safe products

Consumers can more easily compare competing products due to quantification

Some products, such as exercise and diet programs, become safer in a carefully regulated and controlled system

People are more likely to be treated similarly despite their race, sex, social class, and so on

Organizational and technological innovations can be diffused quickly and easily through networks of identical businesses

The most popular products and services of one society can be more easily disseminated to others.

Downsides of McDonaldization

Although McDonaldized systems can enable people to do many things they were not able to do in the past, these systems also keep them from doing things they otherwise could do.

Ritzer notes that McDonaldization brings with it a number of seemingly contradictory inconsistencies, such as:

Inefficiency (rather than efficiency);

High cost (despite the promise the McDonalized goods and services are inexpensive);

falseness in the way employees relate to consumers;

disenchantment;

health and environmental dangers;

homogenization;

dehumanization.

Ritzer argues that, Although there have been many benefits that have resulted from McDonaldization such as variety, round-the-clock banking and shopping, and often speedier service, these rationally built services can lead to irrational outcomes.

By this, Ritzer means that they “deny the basic humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within or are served by them” (Ritzer, 1996).

For instance, the lines at a fast-food restaurant can be very long, and waiting to get through the drive-through can take longer than going inside. This rational system does not save people money: while people may spend less, they may do more work in the form of waiting for food.

Additionally, the food that people eat at restaurants is often less nourishing and contains high levels of flavor enhancers, fats, salt, and sugar. This contributes to the downstream health problems of society, such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, ultimately costing more than was saved by the convenience of this fast food.

As children grow up within these systems, they can develop habits that ensure their increasing dependency upon the systems.

The packaging used in the fast food industry pollutes the environment. And the ritual of fast food may take the place of that of the communal meal, reducing quality social time (Ritzer, 1996).

Examples of McDonaldization

Worker’s rights and wages.

One notable criticism of McDonaldization is that it has, in many ways, replaced skilled work with workers who must engage in repetitive, routinized, highly focused, and compartmentalized tasks.

This, sociologists have observed, has reduced workers’ rights and wages throughout the world, as workers have become easier to replace and in higher supply due to the lack of skill required to do McDonalized jobs (Ritzer, 2013).

McDonaldization occurs when any institution follows its four principles: control, predictability, calculability, and efficiency. Amazon has a large database of items that they work with and sell. This includes groceries, electronics, and digital content.

With Amazon, consumers can order virtually any item online and these products will be delivered quickly and inspected carefully. This embodies the principle of efficiency.

Amazon also exhibits calculability — an emphasis on the quantitative aspects of products served and services offered. Amazon”s price listings provide the perception that one can seek out the best deal.

Amazon has also trained its employees to behave predictably. Customer service agents follow scripts when dealing with inquiries, and Amazon moderates what sellers can sell on their website. As a result, customers can make purchases, in theory, without worrying about whether or not sellers are trustworthy.

Finally, Amazon exerts control on both its consumers and employees. The company — albeit not without ethical criticism — emphasizes timing their workers when packaging goods to ensure that these are delivered within a specific amount of time.

Robots also automate the picking of some products from warehouses. In all, this allows the company to provide a reliable and uniform experience to customers throughout the world (Ritzer & Miles, 2019).

Essay Question

In a culture built on the diverse contributions of various immigrant groups over time and the development of innovative technology, what will be the long-term effect of increased McDonaldization?

Hartley, David. “ The ‘McDonaldization’of higher education: food for thought ?” Oxford Review of Education 21.4 (1995): 409-423.

Ritzer, George. “ An introduction to McDonaldization .” McDonaldization: The Reader 2 (2002): 4-25.

Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization of society: Into the digital age. Sage publications, 2018.

Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization of society. Sage, 2013.

Ritzer, George. “The McDonaldization thesis: Is expansion inevitable?.” International Sociology 11.3 (1996): 291-308.

Ritzer, George, and Steven Miles. “The changing nature of consumption and the intensification of McDonaldization in the digital age.” Journal of Consumer Culture 19.1 (2019): 3-20.

Weber, Max. “Bureaucracy.” Working in America. Routledge, 2015. 29-34.

McDonaldization: Definition and Overview of the Concept

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McDonaldization is a concept developed by American sociologist George Ritzer which refers to the particular kind of rationalization of production, work, and consumption that rose to prominence in the late twentieth century. The basic idea is that these elements have been adapted based on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant—efficiency, calculability, predictability and standardization, and control—and that this adaptation has ripple effects throughout all aspects of society.

The McDonaldization of Society

George Ritzer introduced the concept of McDonaldization with his 1993 book,  The McDonaldization of Society.  Since that time the concept has become central within the field of sociology and especially within the sociology of globalization .

According to Ritzer, the McDonaldization of society is a phenomenon that occurs when society, its institutions, and its organizations are adapted to have the same characteristics that are found in fast-food chains. These include efficiency, calculability, predictability and standardization, and control.

Ritzer's theory of McDonaldization is an update on classical sociologist Max Weber's theory of how scientific rationality produced bureaucracy , which became the central organizing force of modern societies through much of the twentieth century. According to Weber, the modern bureaucracy was defined by hierarchical roles, compartmentalized knowledge and roles, a perceived merit-based system of employment and advancement, and the legal-rationality authority of the rule of law. These characteristics could be observed (and still can be) throughout many aspects of societies around the world.

According to Ritzer, changes within science, economy, and culture have shifted societies away from Weber's bureaucracy to a new social structure and order that he calls McDonaldization. As he explains in his book of the same name, this new economic and social order is defined by four key aspects.

• Efficiency  entails a managerial focus on minimizing the time required to complete individual tasks as well as that required to complete the whole operation or process of production and distribution.
• Calculability  is a focus on quantifiable objectives (counting things) rather than subjective ones (evaluation of quality).
• Predictability and standardization  are found in repetitive and routinized production or service delivery processes and in the consistent output of products or experiences that are identical or close to it (predictability of the consumer experience).
• Finally, control within McDonaldization is wielded by the management to ensure that workers appear and act the same on a moment-to-moment and daily basis. It also refers to the use of robots and technology to reduce or replace human employees wherever possible.

Ritzer asserts that these characteristics are not only observable in production, work, and in the consumer experience , but that their defining presence in these areas extends as ripple effects through all aspects of social life. McDonaldization affects our values, preferences, goals, and worldviews, our identities, and our social relationships. Further, sociologists recognize that McDonaldization is a global phenomenon, driven by Western corporations, the economic power and cultural dominance of the West, and as such it leads to a global homogenization of economic and social life.

The Downside of McDonaldization

After laying out how McDonaldization works in the book, Ritzer explains that this narrow focus on rationality actually produces irrationality. He observed, "Most specifically, irrationality means that rational systems are unreasonable systems. By that, I mean that they deny the basic humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within or are served by them." Many have no doubt encountered what Ritzer describes here when the human capacity for reason seems to be not at all present in transactions or experiences that are marred by rigid adherence to the rules and policies of an organization. Those that work under these conditions often experience them as dehumanizing as well.

This is because McDonaldization does not require a skilled workforce. Focusing on the four key characteristics that produce McDonaldization has eliminated the need for skilled workers. Workers in these conditions engage in repetitive, routinized, highly focused and compartmentalized tasks that are quickly and cheaply taught, and thus easy to replace. This kind of work devalues labor and takes away workers' bargaining power. Sociologists observe that this kind of work has reduced workers' rights and wages in the US and around the world, which is exactly why workers at places like McDonald's and Walmart are leading the fight for a living wage in the U.S. Meanwhile in China, workers who produced iPhones and iPads face similar conditions and struggles.

The characteristics of McDonaldization have crept into the consumer experience too, with free consumer labor folded into the production process. Ever bus your own table at a restaurant or café? Dutifully follow the instructions to assemble Ikea furniture? Pick your own apples, pumpkins, or blueberries? Check yourself out at the grocery store? Then you have been socialized to complete the production or distribution process for free, thus aiding a company in achieving efficiency and control.

Sociologists observe the characteristics of McDonaldization in other areas of life, like education and media too, with a clear shift from quality to quantifiable measures over time, standardization and efficiency playing significant roles in both, and control too.

Look around, and you will be surprised to find that you will notice the impacts of McDonaldization throughout your life.

• Ritzer, George. "The McDonaldization of Society: 20th Anniversary Edition." Los Angeles: Sage, 2013.
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The McDonaldization of Society Eighth Edition

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• ISBN-10 1483358941
• ISBN-13 978-1483358949
• Edition Eighth
• Publisher SAGE Publications, Inc
• Publication date November 19, 2014
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
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Editorial Reviews

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.

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ SAGE Publications, Inc; Eighth edition (November 19, 2014)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1483358941
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1483358949
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• #1,260 in Sociology (Books)

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About the author

George ritzer.

George Ritzer is Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, where he has been a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and won a Teaching Excellence award by the American Sociological Association, and in 2004, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by LaTrobe University, Melborune, Australia. He has served as Chair of the American Sociological Association's Sections on Theoretical Sociology and organizations and Occupations. He held the UNESCO Chair in Social Theory at the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Fulbright-Hay Chair at York University in Canada, and a Fulbright-Hays award to the Netherlands. He has been Scholar-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences. Dr. Ritzer's main theoretical interests lie in metatheory as well as applied social theory. In metatheory, his contributions include Metatheorizing in Sociology(Lexington Books, 1991), Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science (Allyn and Bacon, 1975, 1980), and Toward an Integrated Sociological Paradigm (Allyn and Bacon). Professor Ritzer is perhaps best known for the McDonaldization of Society (4/e, 2004); translated into more than a dozen languages) and several related books (also with a number of translations, including Expressing America: A Critique of the Global Credit Card Society (1995), Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption (2/e, 2005),The Globalization of Nothing (2/e, 2007), and (with Craig Lair) Outsourcing: Globalization and Beyond. He edited the Encyclopedia of Social Theory (2005), and is the founding editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture. He just completed editing the eleven-volume Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007) and The Blackwell Companion to Globalization (2007). In 2006, McGraw-Hill published the second edition of Professor Ritzer's Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classic Roots: The Basics. In 2007, McGraw-Hill will publish the seventh edition of Modern Sociological Theory, and the fifth edition of Classical Sociological Theory. The latter texts, as well as this one, have been translated into a number of languages.

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