Resisting McDonaldization

George Ritzer′s McDonaldization thesis argued that contemporary life is succumbing to the standardization, flexibility and practicability of fast-food service. This book brings together specially commissioned papers by leading social and cultural analysts to engage in a critical appraisal of the thesis.

The contributors discuss the roots of the thesis, the rationalization of late modern life, the effects of increasing cultural commodification, the continuing prominence of American cultural and economic imperialism and the impact of globalization on social and cultural life. The strengths and weaknesses of the McDonaldization thesis are clearly evaluated and the irrational consequences of rationalization are pinpointed and critically

George Ritzer′s McDonaldization thesis argued that contemporary life is succumbing to the standardization, flexibility and practicability of fast-food service. This book brings together specially commissioned papers by leading social and cultural analysts to engage in a critical appraisal of the thesis.

The contributors discuss the roots of the thesis, the rationalization of late modern life, the effects of increasing cultural commodification, the continuing prominence of American cultural and economic imperialism and the impact of globalization on social and cultural life. The strengths and weaknesses of the McDonaldization thesis are clearly evaluated and the irrational consequences of rationalization are pinpointed and critically developed. The book enlarges our understanding of how everyday life is structured by new standards of bureaucratic control and performance-related criteria and plays a major role in illuminating how identity and practice are structured today. The volume concludes with a response from George Ritzer.

Resisting McDonaldization - Barry Smart
Theory, Process and Critique
Golden Arches and Iron Cages - Christiane Bender and Gianfranco Poggi
McDonaldization and the Poverty of Cultural Pessimism at the End of the Twentieth Century
Have You Had Your Theory Today? - John O′Neill
McDonaldization Enframed - Deena Weinstein and Michael A Weinstein
Rich Food - Joanne Finkelstein
McDonald′s and Modern Life
McCitizens - Bryan Turner
Risk, Coolness and Irony in Contemporary Politics
Theme Parks and McDonaldization - Alan Bryman
The McDonaldization of Sport and Leisure - David Jary
McDonaldized Culture - The End of Communication? - Richard M[um]unch
Art Centres - Gary Alan Fine
Southern Folk Art and the Splintering of a Hegemonic Market
Dennis Hopper, McDonald′s and Nike - Norman K Denzin
Theorizing/Resisting McDonaldization - Douglas Kellner
A Multiperspectivist Approach
The Moral Malaise of McDonaldization - Keith Tester
The Values of Vegetarianism
McFascism? Reading Ritzer, Bauman and the Holocaust - Peter Beilharz
Assessing the Resistance - George Ritzer