ABSTRACT
Although the various theories of cultural convergence are quite different from one another, they all make the same basic assumption: the forces of globalization are so powerful and pervasive that local cultures necessarily have to bend, if not to break, to accommodate Western patterns of consumption. Theorists are often so confident in making this assumption that they confine their analyses to the irresistible forces causing the change and largely ignore the consequences of those same forces not only in nonWestern societies, but in Western societies as well. One of the best known theories of global convergence is George Ritzer’s thesis on
“the McDonaldization of society.” In a series of books and articles dating from the 1980s, Ritzer (1983, 2008 [1993], 2007 [2004]) argues that modern societies are becoming increasingly rationalized, a process that he identifies as being similar to that used by McDonald’s, the fast-food chain. Citing Weber’s theory of rationalization as the source of his inspiration, Ritzer (2008 [1993]) submits that McDonaldization is a process in which efficiency, calculability, predictability, and centralized control pervade the organization of all kinds of activity, ranging from the production of food to the delivery of health care, education, and family life. Ritzer’s concept plays on a clever analogy. McDonald’s is a worldwide success, and the
McDonald’s model of fast-food delivery has been widely imitated. At the core of this model, however, is the logic of scientific management, the same logic that Fredrick Taylor (1911) put a name to and that factory owners have widely applied to the production of whatever they make. This logic of using a division of labor to achieve an efficient system of mass production was first outlined in Adam Smith’s example (1976: chap. 1) of organized production in a pin factory. McDonald’s merely, but very successfully, applied this logic to an area in which it had not previously been employed, to the efficient production and delivery of hamburgers. To apply this logic (think of it as “factorization”), McDonald’s created upstream supply lines to obtain the necessary components (beef, potatoes, and the other accoutrements) to make the products that they sell in their small, widely dispersed, but highly efficient factories. What Ritzer brings to this discussion is a certain shock value that comes in using McDonaldization as the analogy for global convergence.
