The Protestant Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism

With reference to Weber’s conception of rationalisation and Ritzer's concept of McDonaldization. Critically discuss the proposition that rationalisation is an inevitable necessity in any creative industry.

HH Gerth and C Wright Mills (1978) described rationalisation as the most fundamental element of Max Weber’s philosophy of history. Rationalisation was first put forth in Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the spirit of Capitalism which aims of certain Protestant Theologies, particularly Calvinism are shown to have shifted towards rational means of economic gain as a way of dealing with their “ salvation anxiety”. The consequences of the doctrine were soon proved to be incompatible with its religious roots so the latter were discarded.

The fact that substantive rationality is necessary points to a significant dilemma of structures o rationalisation. Formal rationality typifies bureaucratic institutions. Formal rationality embraces the norms, rules, and laws of economic, legal and scientific organisations. With the rise of the rational structures within the church even religion has become subjected to formal rationality. Formal rationality is based on an impersonal bond. this bond, Sigmund Freud called “guilt” and Michel Foucault called “discipline” imposes adherence and action. Formal rationality is the most coercive rationality and the most prevalent in social structures. Weber was ambivalent towards rationalisation: while admitting it was responsible for many advances, in particular, freeing humans from traditional, restrictive and illogical social guidelines. He also criticised it for dehumanising individuals as “cogs in the machine” and curtailing their freedom, trapping them in the bureaucratic iron cage of rationality and bureaucracy. Instead of human behaviour being influenced by customs and traditions, behaviours were guided by reason and

In today’s modern society, trends and technology become such a large part of everyday life. So much so that people start to adopt them as verbs and adjectives According to George Ritzer, in his book The Mcdonaldization of Society, Ritzer believes that Mcdonaldization is “ the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming up to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world”. It not only affects the food industry but affects many other industries across the board such as healthcare, education, the workplace and everything we do in our everyday life. The advance of McDonalization is due to four basic factors - efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Efficiency is the one most often associated to the increase in the pace of life. Efficiency means choosing the optimum means to a given end. Increasing efficiency is behind just in time production, faster service and tight schedules from Disney World to the home. In our modern society, people want to get things done fast and want everything to go smoothly but never want to find the way to do it themselves. Alternatively people like to reply on a system that they can rely on and that they know works. Such as when people start a new job they are not just left in a new environment and try to fend for themselves, they undergo extensive training and this