McDonaldization :: essays research papers

sociologist George Ritzer argues that the relationship between McDonald’s and our society runs even deeper. Beyond its commercial propaganda and symbolism, Ritzer says, McDonald’s is a potent manifestation of the rational processes that define modern society. Ritzer warns that the spread of such "rationalized systems" has had irrational consequences, not least of which is the "disenchantment of the world," a situation in which rationality takes over, leaving no room for the mysterious, unpredictable qualities that make us human. Ritzer’s scholarly work has been heavily influenced by German sociologist Max Weber, who feared that bureaucracy would spread until society became a seamless web of rationalized institutions from which there would be no escape. At the time when Weber wrote, in the early twentieth century, totalitarianism was the biggest threat to individual freedom. In the 1980s, Ritzer thought to apply Weber’s theories about rational systems to a very different threat: the proliferation of fast-food chains. When Ritzer began writing and talking about the dangers of "McDonaldization," he struck a nerve: some agreed with him, but many others rushed to defend the pop-culture institution. He went on to write a social critique on the subject, applying sociological theories to the culture in a way that lay readers would understand. The McDonaldization of Society (Pine Forge/Sage Publications) was successful enough that he wrote several follow-ups, including The McDonaldization Thesis and Enchanting a Disenchanted World (both Sage Publications). Ritzer’s most recent book is Explorations in the Sociology of Consumption: Fast Food, Credit Cards, and Casinos (Sage Ltd.). In addition to writing about sociology for a general audience, he teaches at the University of Maryland, where he is a distinguished professor with numerous academic awards and volumes to his credit. We met for this interview on a beautiful fall day at Ritzer’s home in Maryland. A breeze blew outside, picking up red and yellow leaves and twirling them across the grass while we sat inside discussing the disenchantment of the world. Jensen: What is "McDonaldization"? Ritzer: It’s the process by which the principles of the fast-food industry -- efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control through technology -- are being applied to more and more sectors of society in more and more parts of the world. Predictability: An Egg McMuffin in New York will be the same as an Egg McMuffin in Chicago. Customers can expect no surprises, neither pleasant nor unpleasant. Workers, too, behave in predictable ways. Those who interact with customers have actual scripts to follow.

Investigation Completion and Analysis Essay

Evaporation is a process where liquid is converted to vapor with the purpose of separating it from a dissolved solid or from a liquid that is higher in boiling point in experiments or investigations on how to separate soluble solid in liquids (Holland, 2005). Evaporation technique was chosen for the experiment because it is easy and simple to execute compared to other methods of separation such as distillation. 2. Distillation Distillation is an investigative technique used in separation of mixtures based on conditional and differences required to change the components phases of the mixture. It can be applied in a mixture of liquids, and the mixture of soluble solutes and solvents like in this experiment. During the distillation process, the water is heated into the gas phase of the vapor leaving the salts deposits, then condenses back into liquid form that is then collected. The process is then repeated again to improve the water purity (Porteous, 2010). This method was obtained because pure water can be obtained 3. Crystallization This technique is a process of solid crystals formation from a solution. This technique is a technique of separating solids and liquids in which transfer of solute from a solution to a solid crystalline which pure occurs (Jones, 2002). This method was chosen because pure solutes can be obtained. Modifications made, and justification for the changes 1. In evaporation, I applied some heat from flames to the containers holding solution of water and salt. I applied the heat to increase the rate of evaporation instead of leaving it open in the air and under the sunshine that is slow. 2. I used ice in the condenser to condense maximum amount of vapor. Moreover, I re-distilled the condensed water to get maximum dissolved salts again. 3. In crystallization, I left the crystallization process to proceed slowly undisturbed instead of fast cooling. This was to prevent impurities from getting attached to the salts and also to get bigger crystals. Ways to ensure the accuracy To ensure accuracy, I ensured that the same amount of solvent and solution was used in the three experiments. Moreover, an equal amount of time was applied on all the experiments to get accurate results. Lastly, I ensured that the salts and the water had no impurities that could affect their boiling points. Ways to ensure reliability Reliability in the techniques was determined by the experiments producing consistent results. To ensure reliability, I started with the evaporation method which the results were salt and water, distillation and crystallization also produced consistent results of salt and water.Ways to ensure validity Validity indicates the extent to which the applied technique in the separation process separated the components it was intended to separate. To ensure the validity, I ensured that salt and water which were the components of the solution that was to be separated were the end products. The process requires a lot of heat energy which might be expensive. However, solar heat is slow and evaporates small quantities of the solution. The method is suitable in situations where salt is the only product needed. However, collection of water vapor is difficultDistillation The distillation process desalinate water removes dangerous heavy metals like mercury, arsenic and lead, and the soluble salts that harden the water such as magnesium, calcium and phosphorous. Therefore, it is preferable for distillation of drinking water. However, this process is ineffective in separation of soluble salts that has lower boiling points than water such as synthetic chemicals, chlorine solutions, herbicides and pesticides (Porteous, 2010). Moreover, it requires large source of heat which is costly. Lastly, the distillation process strips water its natural trace elements; hence the hydrogen composition in water increases and makes water acidic (Porteous, 2010). Crystallization The process is complex compared to the evaporation method. It is also unsuitable where water is to be collected as an end product. However, it is advantageous since pure salts can be obtained for usage (Jones, 2002). b) Suggestions of possible improvements Alternative sources of heat could be used such as the use of solar energy to reduce high costs incurred in the evaporation and distillation process. Despite the fact that solar energy cannot produce a high amount of energy needed to heat the large amount of the solution for a longer duration of time, it is the best cost-wise. Given that some dissolved salts have lower boiling points than the water hence difficult to separate them from water, the boiling point of water can be lowered by lowering the gas pressure above the liquid. The distillation process strips water its natural trace elements, hence making water to be acidic due to increased proportion of hydrogen. To avoid water being acidic, beneficial salts can be added into the water for human consumption such as calcium that is good in formation of bones. References Holland, C. D. (2005). Fundamentals and modeling of separation processes: absorption, distillation, evaporation, and extraction. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall. Jones, A. G. (2002). Crystallization process systems. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Porteous, A. (2010). Saline water distillation processes. London: Longman. Source document

Attention For Traumatic Brain Injury - 3021 Words

TITLE Attention for traumatic brain injury has grown over the years and programs have been created to help try and prevent the injuries. As this is an injury to the brain the literature is vast with insight into what part of the brain injured resulted in what change in the individual. Children and athletics have been the main focus in recent years for studies as research have shown that undiagnosed injuries can have long lasting effects. The area of focus is that of inmates. It is a population that has not received a lot of scientific studying in past years but it is a population that has been steadily growing. This is also a population that seems to be the most at-risk for having such an injury. The subpopulation of inmate does not†¦show more content†¦There are two kinds of head injuries: open and closed. Open-head injuries are the result of some object, like a missile or an apparatus, penetrating the skull. Closed-head injuries are the result of an impact to the head. According to Ponsford, Sloan, and Snow (2012) about 70% of all injuries to the head are closed-head injuries. Traumatic brain injuries have a severity scale range of mild to severe (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). With mild being a brief change and severe being an extended period of time. How an injury to the head can do damage to the brain varies. Brain swelling and disruption of blood supply are some direct causes of da mage (Kolb Whishaw, 2009). However, neurological damage develops after (also known as secondary injuries) the immediate moment of impact (Ghajar, 2000). In other words even minor head injuries can lead to lasting disabilities and that the injuries are amassed. Meaning that a minor injury can result in a major impairment (Ponsford, Sloan, Snow, 2012). TBI and Inmates Unfortunately, TBI and inmates is not a well-established area of study. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007), mild TBI is found within 25% to 87% of inmates. One such that looked at prevalence was done by Diamond, Harzke, Magaletta, Cummins, and Frankowski (2007) where the researchers looked at Minnesota male state prisoners and assessed them using the Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire. What the authors found