What are the five dimensions of 'McDonaldisation' (Ritzer)?
1. Efficiency: time and cost efficiency
mass production with max. monetary efficiency
mass consumption for max. time efficiency (for the consumer)
E.g.: Thuisbezorgd, Deliveroo
2. Predictability
managing people's expectations (no surprises)
E.g.: packaged tours (avoid surprises abroad), lonely planet guides (same inspirations, so
that everyone has the same authentic experience)
3. Calculability
quantity rather than quality
have overviews about costs and which areas use resources up
New public management = market rationale and government rationale
Only focus is delivery of service under time pressure (takes out the human scale like having
conversations)
4. Non-human technology
human resources are replaced by technology, because people are unpredictable
can cure / fill the gap but also create new problems, when workers are still available
(humans losing jobs over technology)
E.g.: Technology in health care: Japan is obsessed with technology and robots entertain old
people
5. Control
manage uncertainties as much as possible
Humans are uncertain + make mistakes
direct accountability
E.g.: coffee receipts with name of server on it to give direct feedback
What is McDonaldisation according to Ritzer?
Rationalization: a historical process + rationalization as the end product of that development
Society that is characterized by rationalization is one that emphasizes efficiency,
predictability, calculability, non-human technology + control over uncertainty
To have better control over rationalization: need to gain better understanding of this process
Today: still drive for rationalization
Result?: rationalization might lead to bleak and uninteresting places (e.g. Wetherspoon
pubs in UK that turn old heritage buildings into pubs = more liveability, but also bad food/
alcohol)
How does Bauman (1998) define globalisation?
Globalisation is what happens to all of us
Level of agency needs to manage globalisation
Loss of control
, Lack of control and order
Globalisation shakes things up and there are no patterns behind it (random)
How does Bauman (1998) define glocalisation?
Process of adapting international products around the particularities of a local culture in
which they are sold
Redistribution of privileges and deprivations, wealth and poverty, resources and impotence,
power and powerlessness, freedom and constraint (world-wide restratrification)
Concentration of capital, finance, and all other resources + the concentration of freedom to
act
Only a few wealthy people benefit from it while the rest doesn't
Ability to be part of mobility (time-space-compression) divides world into globalised (few
rich, resourceful and powerful people, jetsets/tourists) and localised (most of other people,
vagabonds)
Leads to increase of inequality
How does Massey define power-geometry?
the ways in which different people and places experienced processes such as globalisation
the usually highly uneven and systematic ways in which different individuals and groups are
positioned within networks of time-space flows and connections
places are still significant and are being reworked through processes of globalisation rather
than annihilated by it
Examples: the control over distribution of goods and services, wealth, health, welfare
What does Geertz mean with "thick description"?
thick description as a way of providing cultural context and meaning to human actions and
behavior, as opposed to "thin description" which is a factual account without any
interpretation
ethnographer must present a thick description which is composed not only of facts but also
of commentary, interpretation and interpretations of those comments
How does Geertz describe culture?
culture as a system of symbols to be interpreted according to the logic of a (dynamic) given
cultural context
culture is a web of symbols that aren't existing before + need to be deciphered
People construct web of symbols themselves
meaning of a culture can only be understood from within a given cultural context
(researcher need to live among the "natives")
You don't study a village, but you study in a village
Can only understand native experiences by knowing broader cultural context and the other
way around (be embedded in the native web of meaning)
1. Efficiency: time and cost efficiency
mass production with max. monetary efficiency
mass consumption for max. time efficiency (for the consumer)
E.g.: Thuisbezorgd, Deliveroo
2. Predictability
managing people's expectations (no surprises)
E.g.: packaged tours (avoid surprises abroad), lonely planet guides (same inspirations, so
that everyone has the same authentic experience)
3. Calculability
quantity rather than quality
have overviews about costs and which areas use resources up
New public management = market rationale and government rationale
Only focus is delivery of service under time pressure (takes out the human scale like having
conversations)
4. Non-human technology
human resources are replaced by technology, because people are unpredictable
can cure / fill the gap but also create new problems, when workers are still available
(humans losing jobs over technology)
E.g.: Technology in health care: Japan is obsessed with technology and robots entertain old
people
5. Control
manage uncertainties as much as possible
Humans are uncertain + make mistakes
direct accountability
E.g.: coffee receipts with name of server on it to give direct feedback
What is McDonaldisation according to Ritzer?
Rationalization: a historical process + rationalization as the end product of that development
Society that is characterized by rationalization is one that emphasizes efficiency,
predictability, calculability, non-human technology + control over uncertainty
To have better control over rationalization: need to gain better understanding of this process
Today: still drive for rationalization
Result?: rationalization might lead to bleak and uninteresting places (e.g. Wetherspoon
pubs in UK that turn old heritage buildings into pubs = more liveability, but also bad food/
alcohol)
How does Bauman (1998) define globalisation?
Globalisation is what happens to all of us
Level of agency needs to manage globalisation
Loss of control
, Lack of control and order
Globalisation shakes things up and there are no patterns behind it (random)
How does Bauman (1998) define glocalisation?
Process of adapting international products around the particularities of a local culture in
which they are sold
Redistribution of privileges and deprivations, wealth and poverty, resources and impotence,
power and powerlessness, freedom and constraint (world-wide restratrification)
Concentration of capital, finance, and all other resources + the concentration of freedom to
act
Only a few wealthy people benefit from it while the rest doesn't
Ability to be part of mobility (time-space-compression) divides world into globalised (few
rich, resourceful and powerful people, jetsets/tourists) and localised (most of other people,
vagabonds)
Leads to increase of inequality
How does Massey define power-geometry?
the ways in which different people and places experienced processes such as globalisation
the usually highly uneven and systematic ways in which different individuals and groups are
positioned within networks of time-space flows and connections
places are still significant and are being reworked through processes of globalisation rather
than annihilated by it
Examples: the control over distribution of goods and services, wealth, health, welfare
What does Geertz mean with "thick description"?
thick description as a way of providing cultural context and meaning to human actions and
behavior, as opposed to "thin description" which is a factual account without any
interpretation
ethnographer must present a thick description which is composed not only of facts but also
of commentary, interpretation and interpretations of those comments
How does Geertz describe culture?
culture as a system of symbols to be interpreted according to the logic of a (dynamic) given
cultural context
culture is a web of symbols that aren't existing before + need to be deciphered
People construct web of symbols themselves
meaning of a culture can only be understood from within a given cultural context
(researcher need to live among the "natives")
You don't study a village, but you study in a village
Can only understand native experiences by knowing broader cultural context and the other
way around (be embedded in the native web of meaning)
