Mcdonaldisation And Mcdisneyisation

Question 1

Shaw and Williams

Answer 1

Allocentric - adventuresome and individual exploration
Mid centric - individual travel to areas with facilities and growing reputation
Psychocentric - organised package holiday to popular destinations

Question 2

Mcdonaldisation

Answer 2

George ritzer (1993)
A modern grand narrative
Social theory critiques society in order to understand and fix it

Question 3

The iron cage of rationality

Answer 3

Rationality and bureaucracy: obvious advantages of order and organisation
Saw its potential for inhuman and dehumanising outcomes
Macdonalds is an example of this sort of rational organisations transferred to our everyday life
Rational organisation (mcdonaldisation) provides predictability and certainty (mobile phone, email) instant gratification
Fundamentalism in religion (or politics) can be seen as providing its adherents with this rational predictability and certainty to their life and religion
- rituals of being saved now
- clear guidelines on how to live, what to believe
McDonald’s as a paradigm case is about a process
- toys r us
- body shop
- Kmart

Question 4

Four basic and alluring dimensions for customer and manager

Answer 4

1. Efficiency
   - getting from one point to another quickly (hunger to full, income tax, mobile phone contact, salvation)
2. Quantification and calculation
   - quantity is the measure, not quality
   - ethic of bigger and faster is better (yet we all know home cooked is more nutritious, environmentally more sound)
3. Predictability
   - comfort in no surprises
4. Control
   - substitute non human for technology
   - staff are narrowly and specifically trained
   - customers controlled with limited menus, uncomfortable seats, noisy surroundings

Question 5

Some of the downsides

Answer 5

1. Dehumanisation
   - assembly line life
   - counter staff on formula
   - online bookings
   - voice activated message centres
2. Quantity not quality
   - value meal
3. Expensive
   - ATM and eftpos
   - credit cards
4. Copy, not innovate
   - hamburgers are hamburgers
5. There are escape attempts
   - people search out and use the locally owned
   People subvert the fast food outlet by taking their time

Question 6

Mcdisneyisation

Answer 6

Tourism also characterised by social change
Looking at tourism from two theoretical perspectives
- modern
- post modern

Question 7

The modernity perspective

Answer 7

Grand narratives
- utopian from people like Marx
- dystopian from people like webber and ritzer
Disney theme parks are parading examples of how tourists are macdonaldised, Disney world is
- efficient
- calculable
- predictable (no surprises)
- non human technology
It shows all the signs of irrationality that excessive rationality brings
- long lines and waits
- costs are high due to shopping
- dehumanising effects
- environmental damage

Question 8

Modern macdonaldised tourists want

Answer 8

Predictable holidays
- Return to same place
- Less tolerance for uncertainty
- Want to know what we are eating
- Want to see our own tv channels and news program's
Efficient holidays
- do as much as possible, cram
- Short breaks
Calculable holidays
- know cost in advance
- precise itineraries, close timing
- cruises fit this and are booming
Controlled holidays
- deal with uniforms
- controlled scripts
- tour/cruise routine gives order to the day

Question 9

Post-modernity view

Answer 9

Feifer: Concept of the post tourist
- don’t need to leave home (VCR, www, DVD, cd)
- see touring as playing game (knows there is no authenticity, knows they are just a tourist)
Rojek: concept of post tourists
- accepts commodification (tourism bought and sold, shopping is key element in tourism promotion marketing)
- travel is an end in itself (no higher goals)
- drawn to the signs (souvenirs and artefacts)
- shopping mailed and theme larks and outlet malls
Erving goffman and concept of total institution
- read definition carefully and see how we’ll it fits (cruise ships, organised tours)
- control is not usually blatant, but there
- organised so people do what is expected without force
MacCannell and authenticity
- simulation of French caves as Lascaux, no public access to real cave
- Ritzer and liska argue we p-m people seek simulations no reality
- harder to find authentic sites
- slowly degrading them anyway
- popularity means they become simulations of their original form