Max Weber's sociological theory and the McDonaldization of society

¶ … Max Weber's sociological theory, discuss impact Mcdonaldization society relates today's culture. Do agree disagree sociologist George Ritzer

McDonaldization seen from a sociological point-of-view

Max Weber's sociological theory provides people with the opportunity to have a better understanding of how the process of McDonaldization affected cultural values today. Weber emphasized that society was the product of people getting actively involved in building a set of rules and a community that promotes certain values. Weber promoted social actions as one of the principal concepts that should be studied through sociology. When considering how individuals perform actions that they associate with a meaning, it seems that the McDonaldization process is obviously supported by society as a result of the perceived benefits it provides people with.

Weber's sociological theory alongside of the idea of McDonaldization virtually promotes the belief that people are gradually becoming robots. Bureaucracy comes to dominate the social order as most individuals consider that it would be wrong for them to employ subjectivity in many occasions and as they believe that it would be better for them to behave in accordance with a set of rules.

While McDonaldization can have negative effects on the social order, it also brings on a series of benefits. Weber's theory of individuals appreciating certain behaviors because they associate them with a meaning is actually important in explaining why many people appreciate the process of McDonaldization. These persons are simply appreciative toward the fact that they can work jobs that would normally involve a lot of effort with little to no effort. Engineers are gradually embarking on a journey that is going to have unskilled labor extinct. Machines will replace such jobs and people in general will be forced to get involved in a trend involving society as a whole promoting a set of rules resulting from years of hard work.

Weber devised the expression 'iron cage' in an attempt to have people understand the dangers associated with McDonaldization. While people benefit as a result of this enterprise, the reality is that they are becoming the slaves of technology and that they lose their power as they become less and less concerned about individualism. George Ritzer goes further to denounce McDonaldization and to emphasize this process as the materialization of society losing most of its intelligence. He claimed that the process was illogical and that it was eventually going to have devastating consequences on society.