To what extent is eating food a ritualistic activity?
In my view eating food is a ritual as long as it is not only a means to satisfy a basic need. Through history there have been many ways of ritualizing eating food. The ritual of sacrifice, religious ceremonies around food, the funeral feast, a picnic, BBQs, the Japanese tea ceremony and many others are evidence for the vast diversity of ways to celebrate the act of eating. In her article 'The Meanings of Food in the Public Domain' (1989) Joanne Finkelstein goes to quite some extent explaining the beginning of ritualizing food after the French Revolution, when the bourgeoise were looking for places to celebrate their new status and fortunes. ‘Ci la rinse’, ‘ci la russe’ and ‘ci la francaise’ are just a few of the many ways food could be served and eaten.
Elias is talking about ‘The Art of Consumption’ (1983) in his study of the French court society.
Finkelstein proposes that 'To enjoy the practice of dining out the individual has learned by observation, imitation and practice how to behave appropriately in the restaurant' (p. 52). List at least five 'rules of conduct' that you think are present in the dining experience.
To make a list of rules it s important to decide for the setting. There is a difference between the rules in a fast food restaurant and those in more sophisticated places. For my list I will choose a more sophisticated place:
· Formel dress code
· Using cutlery from outside to the inside (especially with a course meal.
· Using appropriate glasses for different wines, aperitives, digestives and water
· Waiting for all meals to arrive before starting to eat.
· Taking time to eat.
· Switching off mobile phones
Is McDonaldization exactly the same as rationalization for Ritzer?
On his Web site, Ritzer is cited saying, “I'd like to see a society in which people are free to be creative, rather than having their creativity constrained or eliminated." This is a further aspect of his work around the phenomenon of McDonaldisation. In the chapter about McDonaldisation of society, Ritzer says, “Employees are expected to finish a task with little attention paid to how well it is handled. For instance, IRS agents who receive positive evaluations from their superiors for managing large numbers of cases may actually handle the cases poorly, costing the government thousands or even millions of dollars in uncollected revenue. Or the agents may handle cases so aggressively that taxpayers become angered.”
Further he talks about dehumanization. The experience of eating food in a restaurant equivalent to the McDonalds chain has been robbed of any sensitivity, emotion and experience. As Ritzer puts it, it is only about efficiently satisfying a need before moving on to another activity.
Ritzer also makes remarks about Max Weber’s work on bureaucracy, in which every single task is broken down into a formal structure, each task in the process being standardized. This is also part of the way McDonalds restaurants are run. I think he tries to say that bureaucracy helps to increase rationalization.
What kinds of 'calculations' does the making of a 'Big Mac' entail (see pp. 64-6)?
Make it really big.
In the Weber piece we find a distinction between 'formal' and 'substantive' rationality. Write a sentence about each.
The formal rationality refers to the bureaucratic measure of the calculability. As it seems this measure is not at all related to reality, it is a mathematical measure that provides the highest possible output.
No comments:
Post a Comment