Issues in Communication

Arslan Yaris (MMC)

Mid-term Assignment (Essay)

to: Ma'am Faryal

- The Phenomenon of Homogeneity of
Society And McDonaldization

Outline:

 Introduction—what Does Homogeneity Means

 A Homogeneous Society—and vice versa
 Is Homogenization Always an Advantageous thing
 The Concept of McDonaldization
 Essential components of Mcdonaldization
 Mcdonaldization and Globalization
 McDonaldization is not only a Food-chain, but
also a Social and Economic Order
 McDonaldization Produces Homogeneity in
the Society
 Concluding Remarks

Homogeneity simply means 'a quality of being uniform in composition and structure, and
being similar in kind and nature. A society is considered homogeneous if it is relatively
uniform demographically (e.g. age, ethnic origin, economic or education status) or
culturally (norms, customs, religion, etc.).
In general, homogeneity is defined as the quality or state of being homogeneous. It also
means having a uniform structure throughout, rather than diversity in any form.

Although homogeneity can be defined to many other forms but here we are talking
homogeneity in a society. A homogeneous society is a society that has related classes
of people, particularly where there are no important ethnic variations.A homogeneous
society is a population that overwhelmingly shares certain traits or views. These
commonalities may include ethnicity, language, religion, cultural practices and
worldview. The opposite of homogeneous society, heterogeneous society, describes a
population with diverse traits and characteristics. for instance, the homogeneous
societies of Sweden and Germany are even changing rapidly with the penetration of
immigrants across the world.

Homogeneous societies not always tend to be creative, because they all have same
background, same religion, same culture and same language. There is less
opportunities to interact with other perceptions of life in face of other cultures. The thing
is mostly people see the universal culture, language, and way of life as more precious
and worthy to have. But not always homogenous societies are advantages. It has cons'.

George Ritzer introduced the concept of Mcdonaldization in 1993 with his book named
"Mcdonaldization of society". Since that time the concept of Mcdonaldization has
become an important element in the field of sociology and especially in the sociologyof
the concept Globalization.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.

The concept of Mcdonaldization 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 given below:

Efficiency
Always choosing the optimal and fastest way to accomplish something, e.g. to
make a burger. It is an advantage for the consumers who can get what they need
quickly and without effort.
Predictability
 The idea that quantity is more important than quality. McDonald’s equals quantity
with quality and wants to make the impression that a large amount of food,
prepared in a short amount of time, is the same as a high quality product.
Calculability and Standardization
The consumer always knows what kind of service and product he will get,
because taste of the burger and behavior of the workers towards customers are
standardized worldwide.
Control
Employees of a McDonald’s restaurant have to follow strict rules for
foodpreparation, they have to dress uniformly and they need to smile when
receiving orders from customers.

With these four principles of the fast food industry, a strategy which is rational within a
narrow scope can lead to outcomes that are harmful or irrational. As these processes
spread to other parts of society, modern society's new social and cultural characteristics
are created. For example, as McDonald's enters a country and consumer patterns are
unified, cultural hybridization occurs. And these adaptation has ripple effects
throughout all aspects of society

The Mcdonaldization thesis contends that highly Mcdonaldized systems and more more
important, its principles that lie at their base, have been exported from the United States
of America to the rest of the world. Many nations in the world, and subsystems have
been undergoing the process of Mcdonaldization. To put it another way, the influence of
the Mcdonaldization has been growing throughout the world and it clearly put it under
the heading of globalization. The major driving force is economics, the ability of
Mcdonaldized systems to increase profits ability continually is based on the need that
steadily increase markets throughout the world.

George Ritzer, defines McDonaldization as ‘the process by which the principles of the
fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society
as well as the rest of the world. The way in which the hamburger chain prepares food
for consumption is taken as an exemplar of Max Weber's theory of the rationalization of
the modern world. We now have junk-journalism (inoffensive and trivial news served up
in palatable portions), employment in fast-food restaurants and similar ‘McJobs’ is
characteristically low-paid and insecure, and ‘McUniversities’, featuring modularized
curricula, delivering degrees in a fast-track pick-and-mix fashion to satisfy all tastes.

McDonald's revolutionising influence on the fast-food industry not only in America, but
increasingly across the globe, has led to the establishment of dozens of clones in just
about every branch of the retail industry and has led to other social institutions adapting
McDonald's principles to their operations. The process by which these principles are
coming to dominate more and more sectors of society, is perceived by Ritzer to extend
to education, work, health care, travel, leisure, dieting and many more fields.

In essence, McDonaldization is the process of rationalization, albiet taken to extreme

levels. Rationalization is a sociological term that simply means the substitution of
logically consistent rules for traditional (or illogical) rules. One of the fundamental
aspects of McDonaldization is that almost any task can (and should) be rationalized.

The process of McDonaldization takes a task and breaks it down into smaller tasks.
This is repeated until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level.
The resulting tasks are then rationalized to find the single most efficient method for each
method, all other methods will be deemed or discarded.

Mcdonaldization is the most prominent and powerful instance of rationalisation in

contemporary society. Ritzer's thesis holds that McDonald's, with its efficiency,
calculability, predictability or standardization and control is a powerful model for the
forces of modern capitalism that structure both production and consumption.