The McDonaldization of Society was first proposed by sociologist George Ritzer in an article for The Journal of American Culture and expanded in his 1993 book of the same name. Ritzer suggests that in the later part of the 20th century the socially-structured form of the fast-food restaurant has become the organizational force representing and extending the process of rationalization into the realm of everyday interaction and individual identity. McDonald's of the 1990s serves as the case model. The book introduced the term McDonaldization to learned discourse as a way to describe a social process which produces "mind-numbing sameness", according to a 2002 review of a related academic text.
The McDonaldization of Taste | KQED
Which came first, the Big Mac or a consumer culture built on the need for immediate gratification in super sizes? In How We Eat: Appetite, Culture, and Psychology of Food, Leon Rappoport unveils social, psychological, spiritual, and political motivations for eating behavior. He initially became interested in the topic when he was learning the practices
McDonald's: you can sneer, but it's the glue that holds communities together
When many lower-income Americans feel isolated and empty, they yearn for physical social networks. All across US, this happens organically at McDonald’s
Silence is a Commons by Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich is doing to computers what he did to education (De-Schooling Society, 1971), to energy (Energy and Equity, 1974), to medicine (Medical Nemesis, 1975), and to sex roles (Vernacular Gender, 1983). Each time it has been radical analysis that changes our perception of what is really going on. Each time, and with growing clarity, it is an economic/historical analysis having to do with the idea of scarcity as a means of exploitation. This article is from Illich's remarks at the "Asahi Symposium Science and Man - The computer-managed Society," Tokyo, Japan, March 21, 1982. The ideas here are part of a book Illich is working on, The History of Scarcity. - Stewart Brand The CoEvolution Quarterly, Winter 1983
Cognitive Capitalism - Public Seminar
There are broadly three ways of thinking historically about capitalism. One draws on Marx’s value theory and pretty much treats...Read More
Des jeunes corvéables
L'organisation du travail et la gestion du personnel dans un fast-food
Consumerism | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
A History of Menus is a Menu of History
What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?
Fast Capitalism | Mavs Open Press Open Access Journals | University of Texas at Arlington
Fast Capitalism is an academic journal aimed at describing the current moment of capitalism. We publish peer reviewed scholarship and essays about the impact of rapid information and communication technologies on self, society and culture in the 21st century. Our authors examine how heretofore distinct social institutions, such as work and family, education and entertainment, have blurred to the point of near identity in an accelerated, post-Fordist stage of capitalism. This makes it difficult for people to shield themselves from subordination and surveillance. The working day has expanded; there is little down time anymore. People can 'office' anywhere, using laptops and cells to stay in touch. But these invasive technologies that tether us to capital and control can also help us resist these tendencies. People use the Internet as a public sphere in which they express and enlighten themselves and organize others; information technologies afford connection, mitigate isolation, and even make way for social movements. We are convinced that the best way to study an accelerated media culture and its various political economies and existential meanings is dialectically, with nuance, avoiding sheer condemnation and ebullient celebration. We seek to shape these new technologies and social structures in democratic ways. We look at technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), global flows, political economy, culture and cultural studies, social theory, political theory, intersectionality, and the envionrment.
The Unique Horrors of A.I. Food Slop
Why does it feel so unsettling when restaurants use generative A.I. to create their menus and promotional materials?
La cité-jardin Ungemach. Un laboratoire social : un podcast à écouter en ligne
La cité Ungemach peut passer inaperçue avec ses pavillons coquets. Pourtant, elle fut le théâtre d'une expérimentation sociale grandeur nature qui se déroula au pied du Parlement de Strasbourg de 1924 à 1980 : une cité idéale composée de familles modèles.
Friedrich Engels: Einleitung "Bürgerkrieg in Frankreich" (1891)
Einleitung zu Karl Marx' 'Der Bürgerkrieg in Frankreich' (Ausgabe 1891)
Systems: How the Ultra-Wealthy Think About Money - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
J. K. Gibson-Graham
J. K. Gibson-Graham is a pen name shared by feminist economic geographers Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson. The two professors' landmark first book The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It) was first published in 1996 (a second edition with a new Introduction was published in 2006), followed by A Postcapitalist Politics in 2006. The two scholars also founded the Community Economies Collective (CEC), the Community Economies Research Network (CERN) and the Community Economies Institute (CEI), all "international collaborative networks of researchers who share an interest in theorizing, discussing, representing and ultimately enacting new visions of economy."[1] Gibson-Graham's works focus on untying the economy from capitalism and the possibility of transforming economic relations within existing conditions.
Effective Altruism’s Problems Go Beyond Sam Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried made effective altruism a punchline, but its philosophy of maximum do-gooding masks a thriving culture of predatory behavior.
Living Systems Network – Living Systems Network
Holding space to build and celebrate community to #coGrow and #coCook. coFood Vancouver catalyzes neighbours and projects doing good work in our food communities. Together we practice collaborative urban farming through a #permaculture lens, and convene dinners & dialogues on #foodwaste - #foodsupply - #foodjustice - #foodtech - #foodeducation
“A Personal Cyberinfastructure” by Gardner Campbell (2009) er.educause.edu/-/media/files/article-downloa…
