The McDonaldization of society into the digital age

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Preface Chapter 1 Introduction McDonaldization: The Basic Principles Efficiency Calculability Predictability Control The Advantages of McDonaldization A Critique of McDonaldization: The Irrationality of Rationality McDonald’s: Creating the “Fast-Food Factory” McDonald’s and Other Brick-and-Mortar Consumption Sites The Long Arm of McDonald’s McDonald’s as an American and a Global Icon A Look Ahead Chapter 2 McDonaldization Past and Present Thinking About the Brick-and-Mortar “Solids,” Digital “Liquids,” and the Augmented Reality of “Bricks-and-Clicks” Augmented Reality The Changing Nature of Work Key Predecessors The Holocaust: The Concentration Camp and Mass-Produced Death Scientific Management: Finding the One Best Way The Assembly-Line: Turning Workers Into Robots Levittown: Putting Up Houses—“Boom, Boom, Boom” The Rise (and Fall) of Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Malls McDonaldization and Consumption Today Is “McDonaldization” Still the Best Label? Comparing McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, and Amazon In Consumption In Degree of McDonaldization Digital McDonaldization Chapter 3 Efficiency and Calculability: Consumers 1 Efficiency: Drive-Throughs and Finger Foods Streamlining the Process The Fast-Food Industry: Speeding the Way From Secretion to Excretion Home Cooking (and Related Phenomena): “I Don’t Have Time to Cook” Shopping: Creating Ever More Efficient Selling Machines Higher Education: Multitasking in McUniversity Health Care: Docs-in-a-Box Entertainment: Moving People (and Trash) Efficiently Internet Consumption Sites and Streamlining Uberization: It’s all About Efficiency Online Dating: Show Your Interest With Just a “Wink” Simplifying the Product Putting Customers to Work Fast-Food Restaurants: Doing It All for Them Other Brick-and-Mortar Sites: Working While Consuming Internet Consumption Sites and the Working Consumer: Reaching Unprecedented Heights Calculability: Big Macs, Algorithms, and Big Data Emphasizing Quantity Rather Than Quality of Products The Fast-Food Industry: Of “Big Bites” and “Super Big Gulps” Higher Education: Grades and Scores Internet Consumption Sites: Of Big Data and the Algorithms Used to Analyze Them Quantification on Augmented Sites User-Consumable Data Chapter 4 Predictability and Control: Consumers 2 Predictability: It Never Rains on Those Little Houses on the Hillside Predictable Consumption Settings Motel Chains: “Magic Fingers” but No Norman Bates The Fast-Food Industry: Thank God for Those Golden Arches Other Brick-and-Mortar Settings: E.T. Can’t Find His Home Predictable Online Consumption Settings: They Look and Operate Much the Same Predictable Products and Processes The Fast-Food Industry: Even the Pickles Are Standardized Entertainment: Welcome to McMovieworld Minimizing Danger and Unpleasantness Brick-and-Mortar Settings: Antiseptic, Climate-Controlled, Plastic Worlds Online Settings: The Danger Is Rarely Physical Control: Human and Nonhuman Robots Controlling Consumers The Fast-Food Industry: Get the Hell Out of There Other Brick-and-Mortar Settings: It’s Like Boot Camp Control in Online Settings: Amazon’s Increasing Power and the Drive to Limit Net Neutrality Birth and Death: The Ultimate Examples of Control Controlling Conception: Even Granny Can Conceive Controlling Pregnancy: Choosing the Ideal Baby Controlling Childbirth: Birth as Pathology Controlling the Process of Dying: Designer Deaths Chapter 5 Efficiency and Calculability: McJobs and Other McDonaldized Occupations 1 McJobs and the Dimensions of McDonaldization Efficiency: It’s a Fetish The Fast-Food Industry: “Burger Dressers” and “Factory Stores” Academia: Machine-Grading and Other Efficiencies Medicine: On the Medical Assembly-Line Work Efficiency on Digital Sites: It’s Like Working in an Oven Calculability: Zeal for Speed Reducing Production and Service to Numbers The Fast-Food Industry: Hustle, and a Precooked Hamburger Measures Exactly 3.875 Inches The Workplace: A Penny the Size of a Cart-Wheel Academia: Ratings and Ranking Health Care: Patients as Dollar Signs Sports: Nadia Comaneci Scored Exactly 79.275 Points Politics: There Were No Sound Bites in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate The Digital: The Extreme of Calculability Chapter 6 Predictability and Control: McJobs and Other McDonaldized Occupations 2 Predictability: Scripting and Controlling Employees The Fast-Food Industry: “Howdy, Pardner” and “Happy Trails” Other Brick-and-Mortar Settings: Scripted Jokes and That Disney Look The Assembly-Line: Cars More Uniform Than Those Produced by Craftspeople Sports: There’s Even a McStables Predictability Online: Not Taking No for an Answer Control: Even Pilots Aren’t in Control Controlling Employees The Workplace: Do as I Say, Not as I Do The Fast-Food Industry: From Human to Mechanical Robots Education: McChild Care Centers Health Care: Who’s Deciding Our Fate? Phoneheads, Online Chats, and De-Skilled Pilots: It’s Like Being in Prison Digital Settings: More Elimination Than Control Controlling the Process and the Product Food Production: It Cooks Itself Food Production: Of Sea Farms and Factory Farms Control of Process and Products on Digital Sites: Not Really the Most Chosen Chapter 7 The Irrationality of Rationality: Traffic Jams on Those “Happy Trails” Inefficiency: Long Lines at the Checkout High Cost: Better Off at Home False Friendliness: “Hi, George” and Emojis Disenchantment: Where’s the Magic? Health and Environmental Hazards: A Day’s Calories in One Fast-Food Meal Homogenization: It’s No Different in Paris Dehumanization: Getting Hosed at “Troff ‘n’ Brew” Fast-Food Restaurants: Like Eating From a Pig Trough Family: The Kitchen as Filling Station Higher Education: McLectures, McColleges, and MOOCs Health Care: You’re Just a Number Dehumanized Death: Dying Amidst Machines and Strangers The Irrationalities of McJobs: Just Hand the Bag Out Digital Sites: Dehumanization and Other Irrationalities Dealing With Irrationality: Of Velvet, Rubber, or Iron Cages? Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index About the Author